In These New Times

PressTV

14th December, 2010

Iran’s human rights chief Mohammad Javad Larijani says Britain should take care of its own domestic affairs rather than resorting to baseless allegations to cover up its own problems.

Larijani told the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA) that the British want to hide the troubles and shortcomings in their own country by commenting on the human rights situation in other countries.

British Ambassador to Tehran Simon Gass claimed last Thursday that Iran violates the ‘basic rights’ of its citizens by pressuring lawyers.

Iran dismissed any such remarks as Nasrin Sotoudeh, the lawyer to whom Gass was referring, was arrested for breaching the country’s national security by having connections with the anti-Iranian terrorist group, the MKO.

Gass made the remarks on the same day that the British police were put in the media spotlight by employing what critics described as ‘heavy-handed techniques’ against students, who were protesting the government’s plans to triple university tuition fees, injuring at least 43 demonstrators.

Larijani, who is the secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters at Iran’s Judiciary, slammed the brutality of the British police in tackling last week’s student protests saying they used ‘all it took’ to suppress the students.

He also said Britain is violating the international conventions on human rights by using the war on terror as an excuse to implement a range of notorious regulations, including those that allow detention without trial.

He added that unconventional interrogation and violent torture methods are common in Britain.

Larijani then described what happens in Britain as a ‘double standard’ saying what they seek to instill in the public is (the idea) that the West is clear of any mistakes and that other countries violate human rights, an attitude, which he said is internationally challenged and changing