In a recent session held at the European Parliament at the initiative of Friends of a Free Iran Committee, MEP Jim Higgins, member of the Bureau of the European Parliament delivered a speech stressing.

Thank you very much Struan it is very difficult to follow what you delivered with such clarity and such passion and conviction and with such truths. I think it is very important to hold this meeting today being the last meeting of the 2012 and it is particularly important day where we applauded the winners of the Sakharov prize to two dissidents both of whom have been incarcerated by the Iranian regime barring them from coming and receiving their prize their representatives received standing ovations and long applause and universal claim for the works they are doing in terms of standing up for the rights of people who are suppressed by a tyrannical and barbaric regime. I must say that Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi are not the only political prisoners that are under tremendous pressure for having expressed their strong opinions and views about Iran. They are many Kurdish prisoners who are serving in prison in Iran for having expressed their opinions about the corrupt regime There are several prisoners currently on death row merely for being relatives of those who are living in camp Ashraf the 100 and those who moved to Liberty in Iraq. One of PMOI is named Gholamreza Khosravi who has been sentenced to death just for giving money to the satellite TV station of PMOI. The regime has executed thousands of people only because they are in sympathy with the resistance particularly the PMOI. We see that as shocking rise in the number of executions that are being carried out by the regime in the recent weeks. During the month of November alone more than 100 people were executed in Iran. This is the third time I have used the word executed they have not been executed they have been murdered. This is more than any other period in the recent years which underlines the fact that the things are actually getting worse and I think that this message that the regime feels basically more desperate they are feeling the heat more and the rise in these brutal killings is a way they delay their downfall. I don’t know how long this is going to take but one thing I do know is that justice will prevail and this regime will be overthrown the earlier the better and that is our target and I want to say to the people that we will watch this hopefully on the television that is our aspiration that is our inspiration and that is our determination that the regime will be brought down. This week coincidently we celebrate the international human rights day we just voted through the last day in Parliament a report about human rights. It is an absolute shame that the regime has multiplied its brutality in this period. Young blogger for example young worker Sattar Beheshti was killed having been tortured for weeks in advance last month only eight days after he was taken into custody in Tehran that is brutality. The brutalities continue on daily basis in Iran. We see a degrading situation for the Iranian refugees in Iraq who are the members of PMOI. Last year for example some of us after receiving the full assurances of Martin Kobler the UN envoy in Iraq we met him one on one and he encourage the people in Ashraf to cooperate and leave their homes and we gave guarantees and that they go to a temporary location simply for the UN to interview them and give them bonified credentials and that the conditions will be perfect. They are dismal as Struan said it is a prison camp it is a concentration camp. He not only gave us oral and verbal assurances he also gave us written assurances in terms of the properties over half a billion between movable and immovable properties. Ten months later almost all the residents we complied with in good faith we took his views and his encouragements and assurances and we encouraged the PMOI to encourage their people to leave because we thought we had the assurances of Mr. Kobler and the United Nations and at the end of the day they have been brought into a dismal situation not even the basics are there what we have is a damaged compound that was used by the American troops before they were evacuated and those people who had put their money and efforts in camp Ashraf are now living in sub human conditions I think it is a disgrace that the Mr. Kobler’s  only concern seems to be to get the last remaining residents of Ashraf out with the minimum of difficulty minimum of publicity until they are gone and then he can laud himself and applaud himself on the back and get the assurances and the applause of the United Nations for a job well done. It is quite obvious that from the point of view of Mr. Kobler he has more interest in appeasing the Iraqi regime than doing his duties as a member of the United Nations on humanitarian grounds. I agree with Alejo and Straun that this man is a disgrace and he should be and he has to be removed we have to have him replaced with somebody who has a genuine interest in human rights and the welfare of the residents he has been an absolute disgrace and I have to say furthermore that Baroness Ashton has not been much better. I think we at the European Parliament should take a very tough line and we have always got a tough line against the regime in Iran and of course its puppet in Iraq. As Struan said that some of members were prepared to be induced in a  situation of accepting a situation to go and see firsthand and to be applauded wined dined and greeted by the Iranian authorities. This is an absolute disgrace. After all the publicity after putting out all the things about the two attacks in relations with the attacks on camp Ashraf and the massacre. It is a disgrace that people at the European Parliament would contemplate accepting an offer from a corrupt regime that has inflicted barbaric situation on its own people and in addition to all the murders and imprisonments they are a major threat to world peace in turns of enhancement of the uranium program. I mean these nuclear missiles are pointed in this direction and that enhancement threatens. It is mystifying that the United States took so long to delist the PMOI knowing the fact that they are a major threat and as soon as you deal with one threat in one part of the world another threat springs up and that is what we will certainly see in future unless we make sure that we have a democratic regime in Iran. All I want to say in conclusion is that we in the Friends of a Free Iran intergroup at the Parliament the PMOI and the NCRI and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi that they are truly a democratic alternative to the ruling theocracy and now that they have been taken off different lists internationally we should not hesitate to support them despite the massive misinformation and lies that has been put out by the mullahs. In conclusion I want to say we have done a lot but there is lot more to do we will not let on we will not give up until justice prevails and there is a   free legitimate and democratic Iran. Struan and Alejo said in their conclusion I hope everyone has a happy Christmas. I hope next year when we rendezvous here that we will see a further mile stone and hopefully the final milestone in relations to freedom and restoring in Iran that we voted in Parliament literally 45 minutes ago. Thank you very much.