The Norway Post
   
Norway deplores the executions of 10 persons in Iran on Christmas Eve. Prior to the executions Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere appealed to Iran to stop in time and not go ahead with the executions.

- It is highly regrettable. Norway is opposed to all forms of capital punishment, the Foreign Minister continued.

- Norway is engaged in the fight to abolish capital punishment, both in international organisations and through active cooperation with human rights organisations and likeminded countries. We regularly raise the issue of capital punishment as a matter of principle with countries where it is practiced. We focus special attention on individual cases where we know that there are plans to carry out the death penalty in a particularly inhuman way or to execute minors, pregnant women or persons who cannot be deemed criminally responsible. In such cases Norway considers use of the death penalty to be a violation of international law, Stoere said.

Last week Norway aligned itself with an EU declaration on the mass executions in Tehran’s Evin Prison on 26 November and other repeated violations of human rights that have taken place in Iran lately.

The Government is concerned about the human rights situation in Iran in general.  Two days ago the Iranian authorities closed the Center for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran, The centre was established and headed by the Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

“Norway has again today been in touch with the French EU Presidency about the closure of Shirin Ebadi’s human rights centre in Tehran, and we will follow the situation of Ms Ebadi and other Iranian human rights activists in the time ahead,” The Norwegian Foreign Minister said.

(NRK/Press release)

Rolleiv Solholm

The Times

Patrick Foster, Media Correspondent

Channel 4 was rebuked by the Government yesterday for its decision to broadcast an address by the President of Iran as the channel’s alternative Christmas message.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that providing a platform for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust “a myth”, would cause widespread offence, despite the conciliatory tone of his speech.

A spokeswoman for the FCO said: “President Ahmadinejad has, during his time in office, made a series of appalling anti-Semitic statements. The British media are rightly free to make their own editorial choices, but this invitation will cause offence and bemusement not just at home but among friendly countries abroad.”

In the address, a Channel 4 tradition since 1993, Mr Ahmadinejad made a thinly veiled attack on the United States by claiming that Christ would have been against “bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers”.

He added: “If Christ were on Earth today, undoubtedly He would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over. If Christ were on Earth today, undoubtedly He would fight against the tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political systems, as He did in His lifetime.”

Channel 4 had worked hard to court Mr Ahmadinejad and refused to release details of its speaker until an ITN film crew had captured his address on camera, late on Tuesday.

Sources at Channel 4 said that it was aware of the sensitivity of giving a platform to Mr Ahmadinejad. In a break with tradition the alternative address did not go head to head with the Queen’s Christmas message, screening instead at 7.15pm. “We didn’t want to imply an equivalence between the two,” one insider said.

Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at Channel 4, said: “As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential. As we approach a critical time in international relations, we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view.”

Mr Ahmadinejad surprised many by curbing his rhetoric and offering the British people his warm wishes. He sent his congratulations to “the followers of Abrahamic faiths, especially the followers of Jesus Christ, and the people of Britain”. He said that the ills in the world had come about through nations failing to follow the teachings of the Prophets, including Jesus.

He added: “Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change. . . Demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of the nations of the world.”

Ron Prosor, the Israeli Ambassador to London, said: “In Iran, converts to Christianity face the death penalty. It is perverse that this despot is allowed to speculate on the views of Jesus while his Government leads Christ’s followers to the gallows.”

Mr Ahmadinejad once told a Western audience that Iran had no homosexuals. Gay men have been filmed being hanged from cranes in Tehran.

The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “Ahmadinejad’s apparently reasonable words are pure propaganda. His actions are devoid of love, justice, humanity and brotherhood. They involve the brutal repression of his own people.”