mr president whatever people feel about the outcome of the iranian elections there is no doubt that tens hundreds of people have been injured tens of people have been killed in the protests that have taken place since the elections in that country and thousands of people appear to have been detained as political prisoners
this entire chamber should therefore have no hesitation in condemning those abuses of human rights as it should condemn the obstructions to free journalism that have taken place since the elections
we should also as mr saryusz-wolski mentioned concerning the meeting of the committee on foreign affairs last week recognise that one of the best ways of determining a free and fair election is to invite election monitors to observe the process and this european union has got a fine record of doing that
we should note in this chamber today that the commission on our behalf did not have the confidence that they could do an independent fair and objective job and therefore we have proper reason to say that we have no confidence in the election results
our hearts go out to the iranians who have been injured detained or had their human rights abused
our thoughts are foremost with them but i also ask this chamber not to forget the iranian who was an employee of the british embassy
he has been detained and is charged in a completely unjustified way with fomenting the protests
our hearts go out too to the french student who was detained by the iranian authorities
we should praise our colleagues in the swedish presidency who have stood by those countries and who have ensured concerted action by the european union in response and ask them to continue it
finally i am ashamed that in this debate the british national party will speak for the first time with an mep who last friday described islam as a cancer that should be removed from europe by chemotherapy
that does not represent british people's views that is not europe's attitude towards islam
we should stand up against that as we stand up against unfairness internationally
