British parliamentary group: Iran’s mullahs ‘fooled’ HRW

Iran Focus: London, May 20 – A British parliamentary group expressed its profound concern at the publication of a report by Human Rights Watch “containing unsubstantiated allegations against the Iranian Resistance and the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI)” and called on the rights group to retract the report, which it said “does not stand to scrutiny”. Iran Focus

London, May 20 – A British parliamentary group expressed its profound concern at the publication of a report by Human Rights Watch “containing unsubstantiated allegations against the Iranian Resistance and the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI)” and called on the rights group to retract the report, which it said “does not stand to scrutiny”.

Human Rights Watch yesterday released a 28-page report accused the PMOI of torturing dissident members who criticised or sought to leave the organisation.

The British Committee for Iran Freedom announced in a statement, “Human Rights Watch has been made a fool of by the mullahs. It has accepted allegations over the telephone without asking the PMOI for comment”.

“It is Human Rights Watch which is damaged, not the Iranian Resistance who seek the democracy and human rights the mullahs have stolen”, it added.

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, from Tony Blair’s ruling Labour Party, who chairs the committee, said in the statement, “This is no more than an attempt by the mullahs to take the spotlight off their nuclear development programme, their meddling in Iraq and their escalating abuse of human rights. Judging by the enthusiastic reception of the report by Iran’s state-run media, the endorsement of mullahs’ old-time allegations against their principal opponents can only have a negative impact on the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran”.