Irish MEP Mick Wallace is putting Iranian protesters in danger with his statements in the European Parliament, according to an Iranian scientist living in Ireland.
In a speech yesterday, Mr Wallace said some of the protesters were responsible for “untold damage and destruction” and accused them of violence and murder.
He also suggested that the Iranian opposition was being armed with weapons imported from Iraqi Kurdistan – citing comments made by former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton.
He said Iran was “under attack” and accused western leaders of spreading misinformation to destabilise the ruling regime in the country.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Dr Zahra Gholamvand an Iranian scientist who moved to Ireland to do a PhD in Trinity said Mr Wallace appears to be getting his information from Iranian state television.
Ms Gholamvand, who is a member of the Support, Equality and Freedom for Iran group, said the people of Iran have more important things to worry about than the Irish MEP.
“First of all, I don’t think it is worth it for Iranians right now to waste time on some ignorant attention-seeking politician when our children are being killed protesting in the streets for their basic rights,” she said.
22.year-old Mahsa Amini who died in Iran's Kasra Hospital after being arrested by morality police, 17-09-2022. Image: ZUMA Press, Inc. / AlamyProtests erupted in Iran in mid-September after a 22-year-old woman died in hospital days after being taken into police custody.
Mahsa Amini was arrested by the country’s so-called morality police because her hair was visible under her headscarf.
Police say she feinted while in their custody; however, eyewitnesses including women who were detained with her have said she was viciously beaten before being transferred to hospital.
Protests
Ms Gholamvand questioned whether he has any evidence for his claims.
“It seems that he is not very well informed and his narrative is very similar to the regime apologists and the regime itself,” she said.
“It makes me wonder if he follows Islamic Republic media such as PRESSTV. I would ask him; do you have any evidence for it?
“Even if you are right and some people after being oppressed and cracked down on, they just used some garbage bins to close down the road to prevent more casualties, is that violation really proportional with the punishment of death and execution?”
Regime
She said the Iranian state could use his words to come down even harder on the protesters.
“You have to watch your words,” she said. “First of all, you claiming that Iranian people are getting arms from Kurdish areas – this is going to cost a lot of lives.
“The Iranian regime are looking for excuses to crack down even more brutally.
“There is not a single image or video showing that any single person has arms or anything like this.”
Free speech
Ms Gholamvand noted that Mr Wallace has been free openly speak against the Irish Government for his whole career.
“Do you think you would be able to talk about this if you were working and living in a country like Iran?” she asked.
“This is the privilege of living in a democratic free country and this is exactly what Iranians are fighting for.
“Nobody can take that away from them.”
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