Radoslaw Sikorski at the Free Iran World Summit 2021 on 11 July 2021

Radoslaw Sikorski, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland

… is one of outrage at the recent election and the election of a man who is universally condemned as one of the systemic violators of human rights, a man condemned by Amnesty International someone who has been the regime’s enforcer, and someone who is stands accused of gross human rights violations, particularly the execution of 1000s of political prisoners in Tehran in 1988. One is sort of hopeless when something like that happens, because how can the regime even expect us to meet with this person to talk to this person? How can we conduct politics with a butcher like that? I’m afraid it is not a sign of hope. It’s a sign of the regime being intransigent and of defying the world and international norms.

I want to express my solidarity, but I also want to attract your attention to a particular case. And I know that there are so many more thousands of such cases in Iran. We passed the resolution in the European Parliament just last Thursday on The Case of Dr. Ahmad Reza Jalali, who is a dual Iranian and Swedish national, who seems to have been tricked into coming to Tehran after he refused to spy for the regime. And he seems to be have been forced into a confession under torture, and faces imminent execution on the solitary confinement. We are watching this case carefully. We have called on Iran to release Dr. Jalali to allow them to go home. He seems to be completely innocent of the charges, and I just hope the regime doesn’t commit another unpardonable crime with his regard. Let me say that Iran and the Iranian regimes stand as a warning of what happens if you go for identity politics, if you go for utopian politics. But there is also hope. In the 80s, Poland was ruled by one of the three 20th century utopias: fascism, communism and theocracy. And yet today, we are imperfect but a democracy. Regimes seem to be most secure and stable just because they fought before they formed. So, I just hope that just as Poland managed to free itself of its utopia, so Iran will one day build a secular democracy that respects rule of law, human rights, and Iran, and the people of Iran rejoin the family of free and prosperous nations. And I can assure you that the European Parliament will continue to monitor events very closely and to stand up for human rights that every human being in the world deserves.

Thank you. Good luck in your struggle.