Cablegate: Timor-Leste: President Ramos-Horta Condemns Iranian Human

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PP RUEHCHI RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHDT #0044 0530700
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 220700Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY DILI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4717
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1382
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 1016
RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 4288

UNCLAS DILI 000044

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

P FOR STEPHEN MULL, EAP/MTS FOR DANIEL DELK

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM TT
SUBJECT: TIMOR-LESTE: PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA CONDEMNS IRANIAN HUMAN
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

REF: MULL 2/7/10 E-MAIL

1. (SBU) On February 8, DCM met with Jose Turquel, Foreign
Policy Advisor to President Ramos-Horta, and, per ref
instructions, urged the GOTL to issue a public statement
condemning the ongoing human rights violations in Iran. On
February 9, DCM conveyed the same message to Isilio Coelho,
National Director for Multilateral and Bilateral Affairs at the
MFA. Both Turquel and Coelho said that they share U.S. concerns
and would raise the issue with their superiors.

2. (U) On February 13, President Ramos-Horta issued the
following press release:

Begin Text:

President strongly condemns execution of activists in Iran

The President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr. Josi Ramos-Horta, strongly
condemns the execution of the activists Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani
and Arash Rahmanipour, hanged January 28th, in Iran.

The two activists were accused of `muharebeh' - blasphemy and
armed insurrection against the Islamic Republic of Iran - and
sentenced to death for their alleged involvement in the turmoil
in the aftermath of the Presidential Elections in June 2009. The
elections were won - allegedly through fraud - by Mr. Mahmud
Ahmadinedjad, which guaranteed his second term as President of
the Republic.

During the turmoil, thousands of activists were detained and 11
sentenced to death. Two of them, Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani and
Arash Rahmanipour, have already been hanged.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is firmly against the death
penalty, under any circumstances, and defends its abolition
according to the resolution approved by the UN General Assembly
in 2007.

Dr. Ramos-Horta appeals to the Iranian authorities to suspend
immediately the sentences against the activists, as a first step
to a moratorium of the death penalty.

The Iranian authorities must respect freedom of expression and
association, states the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

The human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran will
be discussed next Tuesday February 15th, at the HRC in Geneva,
Switzerland.

End Text.

HENICK

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