Iran cries foul over human rights report

TEHRAN, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Tehran said it was considering filing an official complaint against the United Nations for what it said was a lopsided assessment of its human rights record.

Karim Abedi, a member of Iran's human rights commission, told Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency the Iranian Parliament was considering filing a complaint against Ahmed Shaheed, the U.N. special envoy on the human rights situation in Iran.

A report, compiled by the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, lists violations ranging from the lack of freedom of expression and assembly, to torture and summary executions of detainees.

Questions brought up by members of U.N. Human Rights Committee included queries over Iranian laws against same-sex partnerships and the execution of minors.

"The recent report of the U.N. rapporteur on Iran was one-sided and was prepared under the guidelines of international Zionism to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.

The United Nations in March voted to appoint a special human rights envoy to monitor the situation in Iran. Amnesty International said Iran carried out 252 executions in 2010.

Iran last month executed 17-year-old Alireza Molla-Soltani in a public hanging after he was sentenced in July to die for stabbing a popular athlete, Ruhollah Dadashi, to death in July. He said the stabbing was in self-defense.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency adds that Iran wants to open a "special case" for alleged crimes committed by the United States.

Tensions between Washington and Iran escalated after U.S. claims that Iran was tied to a plot to assassinate the Saudi envoy to the United States in Washington.