Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-21-Speech-4-215"
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"en.20021121.11.4-215"2
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"Mr President, the case of Dr Aghajari has rightly aroused huge interest and concern in Iran and abroad. I share the view expressed by the Speaker, the Speaker in the Iranian Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who called the death sentence a disgrace to the country's judicial system. However, I am not entirely convinced that it is as a matter of conviction that the country's religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has ordered the judiciary to review the verdict. Khamenei's previous record suggests rather that he is playing for time. The student demonstrations should slowly die down, as should the interest shown in the case by the public both nationally and internationally.
It has, however, become clear in the demonstrations that the demonstrators are not only concerned about Dr Aghajari, but that they want more democracy altogether. In fact this verdict, like many others, is not motivated by religious concerns, but by political ones. We are familiar with this from European history, when the State and the church were not yet separate. The rulers of the time used Christianity, too, as a means of realising their own claims to power until it could no longer be recognised as such.
Iranian society is, however, one step ahead of the conservative judiciary and clerics. This is clear, amongst other things, from the most recent proposals for reform put forward by the Iranian Parliament, which seek to restrict the absolute power of the Council of Guardians. I call on the Council and the Commission to pursue the dialogue on human rights in all their contacts with Iran and to be clear that without the European Parliament there will be no agreement on cooperation and trade.
The opposition in the Iranian Parliament, both in Iran and abroad, is also very hopeful that economic interests will not be our only reason to hold contacts with this country. I think that we will also be able to make our views and basic position known when we welcome members of the Iranian Parliament on the occasion of their return visit to this House. For our part, it will always be clear that we are on the side of more democracy and not on the side of those who want to turn the clock back several hundred years."@en1
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