David Jones MP supports Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan for future Iran

NCRI - Rt. Hon. David Jones MP, former Secretary of States for Wales in the cabinet of Prime Minister David Cameron and a member of the House of Commons from the United Kingdom, addressed a major conference in Paris on human rights in Iran on October 10 on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty.

Text of remarks by Rt. Hon. David Jones MP - Paris, October 10, 2015

Maryam Rajavi, ladies and gentlemen, friends,

As we gather here today to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty, can I say how privileged I am to be here and to join you and colleagues from France and from other countries not only in voicing our deep concern over the systematic abuse of human rights in Iran, but also in expressing my support and that of my Parliamentary colleagues in the United Kingdom for your efforts to promote the cause of human rights in your country. We British have got a saying that actions speak louder than words. I’m sure that there are similar sayings in Farsi, in French and in Albanian. So, when we consider the words of [the Iranian regime’s President] Hassan Rouhani just two weeks ago at the United Nations in New York, when he spoke glowingly about a new era for Iran after the nuclear deal we should also consider the actions of the regime that he nominally heads, which has carried out 2,000 executions over the last two years - six hundreds of those in the first six months of this year. 

Those appalling figures are a clear reflection of a continuation of the policy of death that has been pursued by the theocratic regime in Tehran since 1979. Some 120,000 people, many of them political prisoners, advocates of a free and democratic Iran, have been executed for offences such as ‘waging war against God,’ ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ or insulting the Supreme Leader. So Rouhani’s smiles for the cameras in New York are in reality nothing more than a mask, presented to the international community to divert attention from that harsh reality, because the truth is that Rouhani’s new era in Iran is based upon increased domestic oppression with more executions than under his hardline predecessor [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad.

The real message from Iran’s theocracy is that there would be business as usual which includes repeated use of the death penalty. But, it need not be like this. Death need not be the routine instrument for government in Iran. We have a 10-point plan for a new Iran, presented by Madam Rajavi, a courageous Muslim woman, who is leading a movement that embraces women’s leadership rather than decries and denounces it.

It will be under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi that we will have truly a new era for Iran, because Mrs. Rajavi’s plan spells out a vision that is the precise opposite of what is presented to the Iranian people by Tehran’s theocratic rulers today. It comprises all the necessary elements to build a future platform for freedom and democratic progress in your country. It declares that in the free Iran of tomorrow, we support and are committed to the abolition of the death penalty. And we want to set up a modern legal system based on the principles of presumption of innocence, the right to defense and the right to be tried in a public court. Cruel and degrading punishments will have no place in the future Iran.

Those are the values of a civilized, modern state. The future Iran, rid of theocratic rule, will be the first country in the Middle East constitutionally to abolish the death penalty. That will truly be a new era for Iran and will provide a beacon of enlightenment for the whole of the Middle East.

That is why the leaders of the free world should now be offering the fullest support to Maryam Rajavi and her movement as they continue their struggle to create this reality in Iran through democratic change in the country. The interests of the West do not lie with the culture of death that currently prevails in Tehran. Many of my Parliamentary colleagues in the United Kingdom have already voiced our support for Madam Rajavi’s plan, and we continue to press our government to do so too. There can be a true new era for Iran, but, that new era will not commence until the rule of death is swept away in Tehran and replaced by the democratic rule of law offered only under the plan of Maryam Rajavi.

Madam Rajavi, may I wish you strength in your struggle for liberty and freedom in Iran, and God bless the Iranian people.