Thousands
gathered in Berlin's government quarter on Saturday to protest the Iranian
government's use of draconian measures against its opponents.
Protesters,
who carried national flags and balloons in the national colors of green, white
and red, voiced opposition to both the use of the death penalty and torture in
prison.
"Down
with the regime" was among the slogans chanted, along with: "The West
should not enter into any compromise with religious fascism."
A
message from Maryam Rajavi, leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, which
seeks to topple the regime, was played to the crowd.
In
it, Rajavi condemned the Iranian government for carrying out acts of terror in
other countries. Among them, she said, were the Mykonos restaurant
assassinations, which targeted Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders.
Rajavi
called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to send a delegation to Iran to assess the
state of prisons and Iran's claims that there are no political prisoners and no
torture in its jails.
Javad
Dabiran, Berlin representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran,
told DW's Farsi service that the Iranian government — under pressure at a
national and international level — was increasingly resorting to the use of the
death penalty and suppression of minority rights.
"This
regime cannot be reformed," said Dabiran. "We want to convey the
message that any investment that seeks to change this regime from within is a
mistake and that's what Europeans are doing. For this reason, we're calling on
Germany and the European Union to rethink their policy, because it is
catastrophic."
While
organizers put the number of demonstrators at 15,000, police estimated it to be
some 4,500. DW assessed the number to be somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000.
Iran
has faced international criticism over its use of capital punishment. As well
as using the death penalty for serious crimes like murder and rape, the
country's legal system also imposes the ultimate sanction for homosexuality and
political dissidence.
