British Iranians protest Sunni executions, urge UK government to hold Iran to account

Twenty Iranians are on hunger strike in London in solidarity with those persecuted by the Iranian reg

Twenty Iranians have today entered their third day of a hunger strike in protest against what they say are brutal violations of human rights laws by their country's government.

The protestors, who are camping outside Downing Street in London, have been joined by hundreds of others during the weekend in solidarity with the victims of recent mass executions in Iran.

Last week, up to 20 Sunni Kurds were hanged by the Iranian regime for alleged terrorism offences. Human rights groups have condemned the killings, and claimed that the convictions may have been based on forced confessions.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, branded the executions "a grave injustice" and said there were "serious doubts about the fairness of the trials, respect for due process and other rights of the accused".

Speaking to Christian Today, Hossein Abedini, the UK spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – a coalition of Iranian opposition political organisations functioning as a parliament in exile – also strongly condemned the executions and urged the UK to hold Iran to account.

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Under President Hassan Rouhani, who has presented himself as a 'moderate', human rights violations have rapidly deteriorated, Abedini said. In total, around 120,000 people are believed to have been executed since 1981 for their political or religious beliefs, and the figure has escalated since Rouhani became president. Abedini insisted that the UK's relative silence on Iran's human rights record is "shameful".

"Things have deteriorated and worsened as far as human rights are concerned. There have been 2,500 hangings [since Rouhani came to power in 2013], many juveniles and women have been executed, and religious minorities, especially Christians, are suffering in Iran very badly... There is no freedom for religious minorities; they cannot practice their religion [and they suffer] very brutal and cruel human rights violations," he said.

Iran is ranked ninth on persecution charity Open Door's list of countries where it's most dangerous to be a Christian. Open churches are forbidden, and converting from Islam – the state religion – to Christianity is punishable by death for men, and life imprisonment for women. Last year, more than 100 Christians were arrested or imprisoned, and reports of their torture have emerged.

More widely, Iran has a long history of human rights abuses and violence is rapidly escalating across the country, facilitated by laws which allow the legal persecution of minority communities such as Christians and Baha'i Muslims, who have been condemned by Iranian authorities as an "illegal cult".

"There is no religious freedom in Iran," said Abedini, noting the plight of Saeed Abedini – an Iranian-born US pastor who was released in January after being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison for years – and Maryam Naghash Zargaran, a Christian convert from Islam who remains incarcerated and is said to be in very poor health.

Human rights abuses are not the only concern of campaigners – another is Iran's persistent efforts to acquire nuclear capability – but they are the most prominent.

"The regime itself is the most ungodly regime," Abedini said. Rouhani in 2014 described executions under his rule as the fulfilment of "God's commandments", but Abedini said the majority of Muslims want to distance the brutal punishments from true Islam.

"We believe this is only a fundamentalist regime carrying out [executions] in the name of God and in the name of religion," he said. 'Islam is a religion of compassion and mercy.... [The executions are] absolutely abhorrent, and have got nothing to do with true Islam."