LONDON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- British lawmakers Thursday called on the government to lobby for sweeping sanctions against Iran for human-rights abuses and the death of a political prisoner.
Abdolreza Rajabi, a member of the dissident People's Mujahedin of Iran, died Oct. 30 while in detention at the Gohardasht prison near the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Human Rights Watch, in a 2007 report, called on Tehran to investigate prisoners who had died "under suspicious circumstances" at Gohardasht. The PMOI, along with several other Iranian opposition groups, said Rajabi died from torture at the hands of Iranian authorities while in custody.
Lawmakers with the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom Thursday issued a statement condemning the news, saying it was indicative of Iran's continued human-rights violations.
"The torture committed by the mullahs is a crime against humanity," said Labor MP Peter Kingsley Archer, a former British solicitor general.
The British lawmakers also called on U.S. forces to maintain their security around the PMOI stronghold in Ashraf City, Iraq, rather than handing authority over the enclave to the Iraqis.
The PMOI is considered a terrorist organization by several nations, including the United States, though it has been actively lobbying against that listing, saying it has ceased all violent activity in opposition of the current Iranian regime. The British Court of Appeals in May said London erred in its decision to continue to list the PMOI as a terrorist organization.
