06 February 2017 :

In an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and to the Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, the Hands Off Cain association calls upon the Italian government to take action on the case of the Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Djalai. In the letter, the responsible of the group, Sergio d'Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti (Secretary general and Treasurer)  point out that, in these recent years in which the Italian government wanted to strengthen relations with Iran, they have always informed the government abou the data on the number of executions. They underline  the terrifying pace at which the executioner in Iran has resumed work, after the slowdown in 2016, with at least 87 people executed in this first month of January 2017, including some young people who at the time of the alleged crime were still minors. In calling for an intervention of the Italian government on the case of Ahmadreza Djalali, the 45-year-old Iranian medical researcher who also worked in Italy and who is at risk of imminent execution in Iran on charges of collaboration with enemy countries, D'Elia and Zamparutti write:
"We think, with the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, today committed to a common transition to the full affirmation of the Rule of Law, that cases such as this of Ahmadreza Djalali, which is not an isolated case, it is of great political relevance because it deals with fundamental human rights, the right to freedom of culture, in other words the antidotes against totalitarianisms in their contemporary forms and their continuous and increasingly oppressive hegemonic attempts."