Jospeh O’Connell wrote in his defence:
“Radio Farda quoted Human Rights Watch saying that so far at least 12 people have been executed in Iran for “separatist” bomb attacks, and others have been sentenced to death for voicing ethnic protest.”
Yes, but did Radio Farda report that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International described the trials of these executed Ahwazi Arab activists as unfair and falling well short of international norms of what constitutes a free and fair trial?
Has it reported the mass arrests and torture of Ahwazis, all the disappearances, and the Tehran regime’s tactic of taking Arab mothers and children as hostages to force their on-the-run activist husbands / fathers to surrender for execution?
And what about the mass poverty in oil-rich Al-Ahwaz? When was that reported? Which Ahwazi Arab human rights activists have been interviewed? When?
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner, London UK
www.petertatchell.net
