Foreign Affairs committee  [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows:] Yes, unfortunately, that is the case. Ten years ago, in 2016, this political law was passed. This political law, which is very unprecedented, was accepted after 34 or 35 years, but immediately in 1996, 1997, 1998, there came the farmers of Khuzestan, and then we came to women's freedom, which were all peaceful demonstrations.

Foreign Affairs committee  [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows:] When one speaks about a regime that supports its regulations in apartheid, we just talked about racial apartheid. What we suggest today about gender apartheid in international law is because it's not just the gender apartheid; it's racial, and it's also minorities.

Foreign Affairs committee  Actually, no. There are a lot of lawyers in jail, such as Arash Keykhosravi, Mohammad Najafi, Amirsalar Davoudi and Khosrow Alikordi. They are in jail. About this law, parliament in 2015 said that only lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary can represent defendants in revolutionary courts.

Foreign Affairs committee  [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows:] Considering that, I think we need to make sure that we really differentiate between those who are in the army. We have no option. There is an option whether they choose the Sepah, the police or the army when they are forced to go there.

Foreign Affairs committee  [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows] I think the answer to your question is contained within it. When there is a trial, although there are regulations, the trial is political, and the trial has to be in Arabic, yet in 43 years or so, we have not seen one trial that is public.

Foreign Affairs committee  [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows:] You can just look at some of the cases in Europe from 1997. The Boroumand foundation provided a report. Just recently, a woman from France was killed in Iraq. Another one was Masih Alinejad; there was the intention to kidnap her.

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me speak Farsi for the answers in the Q and A section, please. [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows:] I would like to speak about the courts of Iran. The truth is that revolutionary courts in Iran, in all of the cases I had there, you can for sure say that none of them....

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a good question. [Witness spoke in Persian, interpreted as follows:] I have to insist that civil courts are different from revolutionary courts. Civil courts are independent. They are specialized. Perhaps there is some sort of corruption in there, but we are not talking about those courts.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Honourable members of the foreign affairs and international development committee, good afternoon. I would like to thank you for providing me this opportunity to deliver remarks regarding the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC, and the current human rights situation in Iran.