David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----Minister for Justice in Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet. Mr. Rafsanjani was also involved. I raised these kind of issues two decades ago with Rafsanjani when I met him in Tehran and he was not very amenable. A total of 30,000 people were killed. Amnesty International has issued a report. It has been condemned by resolution of the Canadian House of Commons. There is a signed statement from the Members of the Commons and the Lords. Congress in America has passed a resolution. This needs to be recognised as an international war crime. It has been reinforced by the emergence of a tape made by Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri who was the No. 2, a successor to Khomeini. With great courage he protested at the time and as a result he was sidelined and subjected to house imprisonment. If someone as authoritative as the No. 2 in the regime is objecting, we know there is clearly something there. There is evidence of mass graves. Children as young as 13 were routinely hung from cranes, six at a time, in Evin Prison. It is a catastrophically shocking situation and a reproach to all decent people.

I have put down, with Senator Ó Domhnaill, a resolution which is No. 12 on the Order Paper, instancing the Amnesty International report, talking about the audio file and requesting the Government to recognise and condemn this massacre as a crime against humanity and to ask the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and the Security Council to order an investigation and to bring the perpetrators to justice. As people in this country who have consistently upheld human rights in the international arena, it is very important that we condemn this and describe it appropriately as it is, a crime against humanity. A total of 30,000 people and I emphasise, six at a time, 13-year-old children hung from cranes. One thing that really struck me was a photograph of two beautiful, handsome 18-year-old men condemned for being gay and hung on that basis from cranes in Tehran. It is a most disgusting regime.