4:00pm Thursday 9th June 2005
By Sophie Kummer
Some shocking video footage of a public hanging has been shown by a Iranian group from Barnet, during a human rights conference in central London last Wednesday.
The ten-minute video has been smuggled out of Iran by the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).
It showed the public hanging of three young men a punishment for the morality' crime of adultery in the south-eastern city of Khorramabad.
Massoud Zabeti, a solicitor and the director of the Committee of Anglo Iranian Lawyers, based in Barnet, organised the conference at the Law Society.
It was an attempt by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to raise awareness about the politics of their nation.
The group of exiled dissidents claim it is the first film of Iranian executions to be smuggled out of the country.
According to the Home Office, the NCRI distributes anti-regime propaganda and supports Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK) a dissident organisation which aims to remove the mullahs and replace them with a democratic, socialist, Islamic republic.
MEK was banned as a terrorist group by the Home Secretary in February 2001, and the NCRI is campaigning for the ban to be lifted.
The move is supported by the former Chipping Barnet MP Sir Sydney Chapman and Finchley MP Rudi Vis.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.times-series.co.uk