Els Van Hoof
Els Van Hoof, Member of the Federal Parliament of Belgium, of the Foreign Affairs Committee – Speech to the FreeIran2020 Global Summit: Call for Justice – July 19, 2020
Dear Mrs. Rajavi, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen, I send you my greetings and I express my solidarity with the people of Iran who are fighting for freedom and democracy. I would like to inform you about a court case in Belgium against an Iranian diplomat and two Iranian agents living in Belgium. They attempted a terrorist attack against the large gathering of the Iranian resistance movement in July 2018 near Paris. The Belgium police arrested them and avoided a humanitarian disaster in this gathering of 100,000 people. The trial will start at the end of this year. We hope that justice will be fulfilled. Justice is something you are all trying for in your work as some of you may know it is also something, I have tried for in my parliamentary work. My first thoughts always go out those who are suffering. To those who are not considered equal, those who are not free, equal opportunities for all and especially women’s rights are essential important to me. The systematic violence of these rights by the Iranian regime must be challenged. Women and men are rotting in cells because they have different opinion, cannot be accepted in the 21st century. The greatest threat to freedom is absence of criticism. We will always be on the side of the people of Iran. Once again, I declare my support for your movement led by Mrs. Rajavi and wish you victory in your struggle for human rights and democracy in Iran.
