NCRI/Rouhani’s entourage in his trip to Italy and France are terrorists, torturers and revolutionary guards/Welcoming Rouhani emboldens the regime’s most suppressive factions in stepping up executions

Rouhani’s entourage in his trip to Italy and France are terrorists, torturers and revolutionary guards
NCRI Statements | Terrorism and Fundamentalism
January 28, 2016

Terrorists, torturers and Revolutionary Guards are accompanying the Iranian regime’s President Hassan Rouhani in his trips to Italy and France.

Much like Rouhani and his cabinet, his entourage has been involved in suppression, torture and execution of the Iranian people, hostage-taking, and export of terrorism in the past decades. The record of some of his entourage is as follows:

1. Hamid Aboutalebi, Rouhani’s Office political deputy: He was actively involved in the occupation of U.S. Embassy in 1979. He played a key role in the assassination of the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Italy Mohammad Hossein Naqdi on March 16, 1993. Aboutalebi was appointed regime’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2014, but the U.S. refused him visa on account of his terrorist background and the Iranian regime was compelled to replace him. He has acknowledged that he was an interpreter in the occupation of the embassy (Khabar Online – March 9, 2014).

State-run daily ‘Iran’ wrote on November 18, 2013: “In 1979, with the occupation of the U.S. Embassy… Mr. Abdi and Mr. Hamid Aboutalebi went to Algeria representing the Students Followers of the Imam Line and there they invited 17 world liberation movements to Tehran… We had the banner of ‘unity among the world’s oppressed’ in one hand [of the Students Followers of the Imam Line] and 52 U.S. hostages in the other hand.”

According to investigations conducted by Italian Judiciary Police, at the time of Mr. Naqdi’s assassination, Aboutalebi (regime’s ambassador to Rome 1988-1992) came to Italy to perpetrate this crime with a pseudonym and forged documents. The police probe declared: This assassination has been decided by high-ranking political-religious figures in Tehran and during its perpetration… there was direct link with the diplomatic representation in Italy, especially with ambassador Aboutalebi. According to the report by Italian Judiciary Police, in 2003, Aboutalebi was prohibited from entering the Schengen region since he was suspect in the perpetration of the crime.

2. Mullah Hesam-ad-Din Ashena: He is Rouhani’s cultural advisor and in charge of Iranian President’s Center for Strategic Studies. In 1992 he became Director General of Qom Province’s Intelligence Department and played an active role in the suppression of the people and dissident clerics, as well as the house arrest of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, former designated successor to Khomeini who lost his position for protesting the massacre of People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) members. In 1997, he became Deputy Intelligence Minister and head of the special department dealing with clerics with the mandate to identify and repress dissident clerics. During the rule of this regime, thousands of clerics have been arrested and tortured and dozens have been executed.

3. Mohammad Saeidi: Director General of regime’s maritime line that is accompanying Rouhani as a member of the economic delegation. He is a torturer of the Intelligence Ministry and an element of the 1998 serial killings.

4. Abbas Akhoundi: He is a member of the Revolutionary Guards and played an active role in the 1980s as a member of the special security council in western Iran, which cracked down on the people living in western Iran. He was also Secretary of country’s Security Council for a period of time. Rouhani’s Minister of Intelligence Mahmoud Alawi noted a few months ago: Rouhani’s ministers are “typically either from the Revolutionary Guards or members of the central committee of Jahad Sazandegi (a suppressive organ affiliated with IRGC) or from other revolutionary institutions; from the judiciary system, agents of the intelligence ministry…”

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 28, 2016

Welcoming Rouhani emboldens the regime’s most suppressive factions in stepping up executions
NCRI Statements | President-elect/January 28/16

Regarding the trip by Hassan Rouhani, the President of the clerical regime, to Italy and France, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, said: As a mullah, Hassan Rouhani is a defender of the ruling theocracy and has sworn allegiance to the velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of the supreme leader). Rouhani has been among the most senior officials of the religious fascism ruling Iran throughout the past 37 years and has been involved in all its atrocities. He should face justice for crimes against humanity. His claim to moderation is a big lie meant to attract the West’s assistance in pursuing his mandate to save the crisis-riddled regime, which the overwhelming majority of Iranians seek to overthrow. Yet, he is uninterested and incapable of distancing himself, in practice or in words, from the wave of executions in Iran and Bashar al-Assad’s massacre of the Syrian people. That explains why he has expressed unequivocal and explicit support for executions and for Bashar al-Assad.

This reality can be noticed from his record as president, which includes some 2200 executions (the highest number in the past 25 years), all out support for the Assad dictatorship and the slaughter of the Syrian people, the missile attack against Camp Liberty residents, and the official order for the expansion of the ballistic missile program of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which is tantamount to proliferation of WMD. During his tenure, suppression and executions of Sunni Muslims and Christians have been stepped up, and in spite of all his promises Iran’s economic situation has deteriorated since he has committed himself to pay for the expenditure of the wars of the IRGC and the regime’s para-military forces in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

His record proves the baseless and absurd nature of the myth of “moderation” in the clerical regime. Rolling out the red carpet for Rouhani by European governments is to welcome the godfather of terrorism and fundamentalism, to strengthen the regime as a whole and its most repressive factions, and is to the detriment of human rights in Iran. Welcoming Rouhani will only embolden this regime in the torture and execution of the Iranian people, further warmongering in the region, especially in Syria, and export of Islamic extremism and terrorism. Relations with the Iranian regime should be contingent upon a halt to executions and an improvement of human rights in Iran. This is the will of the Iranian people and an imperative for peace and fighting terrorism in the region and the world.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran