WASHINGTON, DC – Iranian justice minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi dismissed a UN report on human rights violations in Iran, saying that the West did not have the right to interfere in his country’s internal affairs or criticize its Islamic laws.
The minister charged that, Western criticism of Iran’s religious laws is an affront to Iranians.
“With their votes, the majority of Iranians have accepted Islamic law and jurisprudence and no one has the right to interfere (in our internal affairs),” Pour-Mohammad said in a speech last week at a religious youth center.
In his comments he singled out Ahmed Shaheed, the UN human rights rapporteur who wrote the report.
“We are against having a rapporteur on Iran altogether. The West's main problem with us is on human rights,” the minister said. “Ahmad Shaheed is not a jurist. He has entered the political stage like a simple laborer and started to oppose us from the beginning.”
Pour-Mohammadi said that the West chooses to focus on human rights inside Iran and ignores progress on important issues such as Tehran’s nuclear program, the fight against terrorism and the country’s political process.
Faraz Sanei, a researcher at Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa desk said that human rights activists are no strangers to such responses from Iran.
“Pour-Mohammadi’s recent criticism against Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran is, unfortunately, typical of the personal attacks that Iranian authorities regularly hurl at those critical of the country’s atrocious rights record,” Sanei told Rudaw.
“Instead Pourmohammadi and the Iranian government should spend their energy addressing the substance of the UN Special Rapporteur’s reports which are consistent with similar findings documented by numerous other rights bodies and organizations, including Human Rights Watch,” he added.
In an interview with Washington-based Radio Farda, Shaheed defended the report, noting that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had promised reforms before his election in June.
“In his election campaign he promised reforms that would include freedom of speech and gender discrimination… he spoke of civil rights, and I hope his promises will be grounds for improving the human rights situation in Iran,” Shaheed said.
Regarding the house-arrest of major opposition figures, among them former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karoubi, which feature in the UN report, Pour-Mohammadi said this was a “state decision.”
“If we had tried them in court, we would have faced further clashes, demonstrations and opposition. Therefore, at this stage the regime has decided these individuals must be restricted,” he said.
In a statement last week, Amnesty International said that Iran has carried out 40 executions during the first two weeks of this year. In the past few months, a number of Kurdish activists were hanged in Iran, triggering protests by Kurds inside Iran and outside.
