Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-13-Speech-4-170"
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"en.20000413.7.4-170"2
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"Mr President, what is the purpose of this joint resolution? Surely it is to establish a proper and public judicial process against the thirteen members of the Jewish community in the Southern Iranian town of Shiraz? The European Parliament in no way disputes the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to react against foreign attempts at espionage and where the burden of proof is decisive, to punish them accordingly.
The point is, however, that the arrest and imprisonment of the thirteen Jews from Shiraz up to now has been a real caricature of a normal judicial process, a process that the constitution of the Islamic Republic itself actually provides for. What fundamental objections are we actually raising against the judicial action taken by the Iranian authorities? To start with, a variety of scarcely plausible accusations have been levelled at the accused. For example, proselytising against Islam and the joint teaching of boys and girls, a violation of the customary separation of the sexes in education in that country. The latest accusation was scarcely credible to the orthodox Jewish community in Shiraz. Finally, the official accusers raised the almost stereotypical subject of spying for ‘America and the Zionists’, which means the state of Israel. And so these thirteen Jews are being threatened with the death penalty. And remember, this has been the case for over a year as they were arrested in March 1999.
The whole affair in the meantime smacks of the unremitting power struggle between the reformist camp around President Khatami and the conservatives around revolutionary leader Khomenei – by trampling on a defenceless Jewish minority of about 30 000 people.
What position should the European Parliament take in this tough, domestic political struggle with regard to the specific case of the thirteen Jews from Shiraz? Of course, it goes without saying that we should support those Iranian powers that publicly declare that they are striving for a society based on the rule of law and human rights and who are open to contact with the West. This fundamental choice involves, at the same time, not giving the hard-liners in the Islamic Republic any excuse to undermine this promising path of reform.
Our amendment in paragraph 5 is based on this very consideration. Iranian fundamentalists will immediately attack the European request to Teheran to support the complete abolition of the death penalty – note that this is a provision that runs directly counter to Islamic law, the sharia, as a renewed attempt at the pernicious westernisation of their own Islamic Republic! And, in their view, the abolition of the sharia is equivalent to the abolition of the present Iranian form of government. In short, this addition does nothing to support the case of the thirteen Jews from Shiraz.
The European Parliament must not, therefore, give ammunition for propaganda in this matter of life and death to the ultra-conservatives in Iran, who, in the last few years, have quite simply been pushed onto the defensive by Khatami and his followers. What we have in mind is a clear legal settlement of this tragedy, ending we hope with the release of all prisoners. That would really add a happy chapter to the almost 2500 years of history of the Jewish community in the land of the Persians. God willing, that is what we shall see!"@en1
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