Fifty Iranians in Portugal demand inclusion of the Revolutionary Guard in the list of terrorist organizations
About fifty Iranians residing in Portugal demonstrated this Monday in front of Parliament to sensitize Portuguese MPs to support the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran in the list of terrorist organizations created by the European Parliament (EP).
In a manifesto, read by Roham Torabi, a member of the Iranian Community in Portugal, it is recalled that the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Republic of Iran was created 44 years ago and that, throughout all that time, “it robbed the people of the right to a normal and dignified”.
“The Islamic terrorist regime that has governed Iran since 1979 has trampled on all these values and minority groups, in particular, are institutionally threatened and persecuted on a large scale”, reads the manifesto, with Torabi realizing that the protests that have been taking place since September 2022 have already led to the arrest of thousands of Iranians, some of whom have been sentenced to the death penalty.
The session of the European Parliament that began this Monday in Strasbourg (France), headquarters of the organization, will analyze next Wednesday and Thursday the proposal to include the Revolutionary Guard in the list of terrorist organizations, reason for which thousands of Iranians, underlined Torabi, demonstrations are being held in many cities around the world today.
“We are all putting all the pressure we can so that the EP approves this resolution and includes the Revolutionary Guard in this group (of terrorist organizations). I believe that this will happen, not today, not next week, but it will happen in the near future “, the member of the Iranian Community in Portugal told the Lusa agency.
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“It has to be, because this group [Guarda Revolucionária], created 44 years ago, since the founding of the Islamic Republic, traffics and sells oil and drugs on the black market, whatever you want. It can currently be said to be the biggest terrorist group the world has ever seen,” he added.
For Torabi, if the international community “cuts the hands” of the Revolutionary Guard, approving a resolution that foresees the inclusion in the list of terrorist organizations, this will constitute a “first step” towards the liberation of Iran.
“Today I defend ‘a solution, the resolution’, not the revolution. Because we believe that we can cut the hands of the Revolutionary Guard and that will be a first step for the revolution to happen”, he argued.
The protests in Iran gained a strong dynamic after the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini, today “present” at the demonstration with her face on an Iranian flag, who died on September 16 under the guard of the uniformed police, a force integrated in the Revolutionary Guard, three days after being arrested for the misuse of the ‘hijab’, the Islamic veil, violating, according to security forces, Iran’s strict dress code.
Also to the Lusa agency, Aswa Karoobi, also a member of the Iranian Community in Portugal, recalled the thousands of arrests in the protests that followed, highlighting the death of several hundred people and receiving capital punishment, “in trials that are a farce”, of at least 112 protesters, with 109 of them currently on “death row”.
In front of the Portuguese Parliament, demonstrators hung dozens of photographs of demonstrators who have already been killed in alleged clashes with the security forces, of others who were awaiting capital punishment and of others who are being held.
“Mahsa, woman, life, freedom”, “justice for Iran”, “stop the executions” or “Iran needs an April 25th” were some of the slogans shouted by the demonstrators during the nearly two hours of a peaceful protest without incident.
In solidarity with the Iranian demonstrators, a message received from the Liberal Initiative (IL) party announced that the third force of the Portuguese opposition will place “under its protection”, as is already done in Europe, two Iranians sentenced to death by the Tehran regime. .
Joana Cordeiro, deputy, recalled that it was an initiative of about two hundred French, German, Swedish and other parliamentarians across Europe, to which IL is associated, with the parliamentarian “sponsoring” Mohammad Ghobadlou and the leader from the IL bench, Rodrigo Saraiva and the “protector” Mohammad Boroughani, both sentenced to death.
“We have to draw attention, give international visibility to situations of this kind, as we cannot remain impassive in the face of this brutal wave of violence by a regime that has no popular support and is becoming increasingly isolated internationally”, he concluded.