Germany confirmed on Saturday that it was giving asylum to dozens of dissident Iranians who participated in post-election protest rallies. Most of the refugees were journalists critical of the government.
“It is natural that the enemies of the Iranian nation would give medals and prizes to their soldiers and stooges,” Hossien Ebrahimi, deputy chairman of Iran’s parliamentary committee on security and foreign policy, was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.
Thousands of opposition supporters were detained after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was returned to power in a contested vote in June 2009. Most of them have since been freed but more than 80 people have been jailed for up to 15 years. Two people put on trial after the election have been executed.
Iran has accused Western countries of fomenting anti-government protests, something they have denied.
Ebrahimi said Germany’s decision to welcome people it considers dissidents amounted to interference.
“Does it not bother Berlin if a riot happens in Germany and then some other countries start interfering in its internal affairs by giving awards and granting asylum to the rioters?
“Why, now that the fire of sedition has been extinguished and the seditionists have been banished by people, has Germany started to grant asylum to them?” said Ebrahimi.
Germany is involved in diplomatic efforts to try to get Iran to curb its nuclear activity, which Western nations suspect is aimed at developing atomic bombs. Tehran denies this.
In Brussels on Monday, European Union foreign ministers adopted tough new sanctions on Iran. (Writing by Ramin Mostafavi, Editing by Mark Heinrich)
