Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

-JOHN () (): I read to the Senate the words of Mohammad Hashemi, a cousin of Majid Kazemi, who was executed by the Uranian regime. Mohammad is in the chamber with us today.

Under normal circumstances, on Thursday 8 June, the 31st birthday of my beautiful cousin Majid Kazemi should have been celebrated, but instead the regime had him murdered weeks before for simply pursuing the harmless act of a protesting peacefully.

On Majid's birthday, the security forces burnt Majid's grave to prevent his family from commemorating him. His family were not permitted to visit his grave for his birthday. It has been vandalised. Majid's brothers, Hossein and Mehdi, are still in prison after more than three weeks for no legitimate reason, and we haven't heard from them at all.

These are my family. They are my life. In the face of tyranny, we are victims.

Politicians only continue their words of condemnation towards the barbaric actions of the Iranian regime. Condemnation does not bring back my dear cousin to his family. Condemnation does not resurrect all the innocent children murdered by the regime. Condemnation does not undo the torture, forced confessions, rapes and killings of innocent people.

For months, I campaigned tirelessly, begged and pleaded for representation to be made on behalf of my dear cousin Majid to no avail. I cannot help but wonder if concrete action was taken sooner whether my dear cousin would be alive today.

We have pleaded, we have begged, and we have cried out for help time and time again. We reached out for your assistance, but our pleas fell on deaf ears.

Please do something before it is too late to take concrete actions, to ensure that these human rights violations are brought to an end.

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