Iran MPs condemn UK rights violations

A number of Iranian lawmakers have condemned the brutal crackdown of UK police on British protesters and criticized the false claims of freedom made by British officials. In a statement released on Wednesday, a total of 239 members of the Iranian Majlis (parliament), the UK proved to the world its claims of rights advocacy are a sham with their brutal treatment of demonstrators, IRNA reported. “There is no doubt the voice of British citizens under pressure from unemployment and economic crisis has reverberated [through the world]… the British government showed that it not only is against human rights but it also does not care about the rights of minorities [living in that country],” the statement also read. Iranian lawmakers called for an immediate end to the violent crackdown on and inhumane treatment of protesters in the UK as well as the release of all those arrested by police in the recent rallies. The lawmakers also called on international bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the UN Security Council to take necessary steps regarding the crackdown on Britons. The unrest in Britain began on August 6 in the north London suburb of Tottenham, after a few hundred people gathered outside a police station to protest against the fatal shooting and killing of a black man, Mark Duggan, by the police. Thereafter, violent protests erupted in major cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol, contributing to Britain's worst unrest since the 1980s. Reports say that several people have also been killed, and many more have been arrested during the police crackdown on protesters across the UK.