Secretary of Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council, Kazem Gharibabadi

Tehran (IP) - Iran’s human rights chief responded to the European Parliament’s resolution on the death penalty in the country, saying the new resolution had been formulated for merely political purposes.

Iran PressIran News: The European Parliament on Thursday adopted resolutions on human rights violations in the Philippines, on death penalties in Iran, and on the political crisis in Burkina Faso after a coup.

On Iran, the parliament called on the authorities to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty with the abolition of this practice in the future. Members of the parliament also urged the Iranian authorities to adopt Article 91 of the country’s Islamic Penal Code, restricting the use of death penalties against criminals under 18.

Kazem Gharibabadi, the Deputy for international affairs of the Iranian Judiciary, said: “This resolution contains deviant and false content and does not correspond to the realities in Iran, but has been formulated for purely political purposes.”

Noting that the death penalty is applied in accordance with the law in 55 countries, called on the European Parliament and European countries to respect the laws of countries and cultural diversity in human rights.

According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the death penalty is allowed when it comes to capital crimes, the Iranian official said, noting that Europeans should avoid forcing other nations to accept and implement European standards, which is in contradiction to other countries sovereignty.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Gharibabadi criticized the European Parliament for supporting the MKO terrorist group and describing such a dangerous group as political opponents, noting that it is shameful for those representatives in the European Parliament that neglect crimes and massacres committed by the terrorists who killed more than 12,000 Iranian civilians and they yet continue their crimes while traveling in European countries freely.

As to the resolution’s support for an Iranian-European national named Ahmad-Reza Jalali, the official censured Europe’s policy in misusing such people for spying on other countries, including Iran.

He went on to say that certain European states have extradited some Iranian nationals to the United States based on the fake justification that they dodged illegal US sanctions, calling on Europe to stop violating Iranians’ rights.

The death penalty is a law that tries to implement the rights of families of victims; so, the government cannot change the rule, but the judiciary system and popular groups in Iran try to persuade the families of the victims to stop the execution of capital punishment, he said, urging the European Parliament to revoke the resolution, which has been ratified as a result of lobbies’ influence.

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