EUROPEAN LEFT HONORS WOMEN STONING REGIME IN IRAN / Critic against GUE/NGL German Leftparty
Cornelia Ernst / GUE/NGL – DIE LINKE – Deutschland/ Leftparty Germany Cornelia Ernst, MdEP Brussels
European Parliament’s Surprise Visit to Tehran in 10 Days
“No explanation has been given to what possibly could have initiated this trip except for Iran’s interest for domestic propaganda in the run up to the June presidential elections,” said Hamid Khansari a human rights activist in Brussels.
“No matter how aggressive and arrogant this regime is and no matter how many innocent people that are killed every day, some seem only interested in trade and business.”
Last time the delegation tried to organise such a trip in October last year, there was a public outrage and protests from human rights activists as well as various political groups inside the European Parliament which led to some pre-conditions to be included before the trip; mainly to visit Sakharov Prize Winners Nasrin Soutoudeh and Jafar Panahi who were imprisoned in Iran.
This time, the parliament’s “Iran Delegation”, which is in the hands of European Parliament’s Greens and GUE/NGL group, decided to remove all preconditions and keep the arrangement off the public radar in order to avoid any reactions that would disrupt the trip.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/abbas-rezai/iran-european-parliament_b_3116298.html