Persecution Of The Church In Iran

EDM number 1454 in 1993-94, proposed by David Alton on 05/07/1994.

That this House is appalled at the murder of the Reverend Tateos Michaelian, Chairman of the Council of Protestant Ministers in Iran and the disappearance of Reverend Mehdi Dibaj, an Iranian pastor who had been imprisoned for nine years by the Iranian Regime and had been sentenced to death for apostasy; notes that the Reverend Mr Michaelian had been threatened by the Iranian authorities on different occasions that he would be killed and that his predecessor, Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, had also been killed in similar circumstances after several conflicts with the Iranian regime over religious liberty; calls upon the government of Iran to take action to ensure that Mehdi Dibaj is safe; notes that there appears to be a systematic plan by the Iranian Government to exterminate the leadership of the Iranian Church, and that the Iranian Government is also responsible for other gross human rights violations such as the killing of political prisoners and opponents, for the persecution of religious minorities and for the export of Islamic extremism and terrorism; and urges Her Majesty's Government to use the United Kingdom's seat at the United Nations Security Council to call for United Nations action against Iran as a matter of urgency, such action to include an international arms embargo and boycott of Iranian oil.

This motion has been signed by a total of 42 MPs.