§ 1. Mr. Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw)If he will make a statement on the verdict of the trial of the Jews from Shiraz in Iran. [129540]
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Peter Hain)We have expressed our deep concern to the Iranian authorities about the sentences. We and our European Union partners have consistently raised our concerns about the conduct of the trial—in particular, its closed nature despite earlier assurances to the contrary.
§ Mr. RoyDoes my hon. Friend agree that, at a time when the Israelis and the Palestinians are moving that extra mile for peace, Iran remains a bastion of religious intolerance? Will he express to the Iranians the British Government's deep concern about their sham trial of Jewish teachers, rabbis, schoolboys, shopkeepers and cemetery attendants who are guilty of no more than being Jewish?
§ Mr. HainI agree that the trial was deeply flawed. Indeed, we have consistently made our concerns about it clear to Iranian Ministers.
It is, perhaps, something of a mercy, given that 17 Iranian Jews have been executed since 1979, that at least these were not death sentences; but they were nevertheless very heavy. In the context of a flawed trial, we hope that the appeals process will address that. It should be seen against the wider background of a reform 200 agenda in Iran which we welcome, in which we are engaged, and which has improved human rights in many other respects—although, sadly, it has not yet improved human rights for the Iranian Jewish community.
§ Mr. Richard Spring (West Suffolk)The Minister will be aware that the 10 Iranian Jews were held for months without charge, and were denied the right to appoint their own lawyers. Will he remind the Iranian Government, given the pending appeals process, that Iran is a signatory to the international charter of human rights, which enshrines the right to a just trial?
§ Mr. HainI agree with the hon. Gentleman. My hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford), the Minister for Housing and Planning, is in Iran now. He has raised our concerns about the trial yet again, and has pressed for the sentences to be reviewed in a favourable way that addresses precisely the points that the hon. Gentleman has raised.
§ Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich)Will my hon. Friend nevertheless insist that if there is really a serious programme to bring Iran into the circle of nations that believe in democracy, and if Iran really wishes once more to be an important player in world politics, Iran must recognise that show trials are not acceptable, that democratic countries will not support them, and that unless there is a very rapid move towards at least lightening the sentences there will be total opposition to allowing Iran to regain the role that it sees for itself?
§ Mr. HainI agree that the eyes of the world will be on this case, and particularly on the way in which the appeals process proceeds. As my hon. Friend says, the trial was deeply flawed, and an injustice has been done. We continue to believe, however, that our policy of critical engagement with the reforming Iranian Government of President Khatami is the best way both to protect human rights in Iran and to engage the Iranian people directly with the objective of achieving an Iran that returns to what my hon. Friend rightly described as the circle of nations, so that it can play an honourable and peaceful role in the establishment of justice in the region and internationally.