Deputy Mervyn Taylor gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of the Private Notice Question with regard to the death sentence imposed on a journalist in Iraq for alleged espionage. Deputy Taylor has ten minutes to present his case and the Minister of State has five minutes to reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Death Sentence Imposed on Journalist.
First, I want to express my thanks and appreciation to you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this most tragic matter on the Adjournment. I hope some good may come of it. The matter concerns a journalist with the Observer newspaper of London, Mr. Bazoft. Mr. Bazoft arrived in Baghdad to carry out a reporting mission for his newspaper, the Observer of London.
When he arrived he heard that a major explosion had taken place at a military complex south of Baghdad and that up to 700 people were killed. As any newspaper reporter would do, he set off to report on the matter for his newspaper. He was given a lift to that area by a friend, Mrs. Parish, a nurse working in Baghdad. I understand that many other journalists and an ITN newsteam also tried to get through to cover the same explosion but they were intercepted and turned back whereas Mr. Bazoft managed to get through with the aid of Mrs. Parish. He was arrested and brought before a military revolutionary court charged with espionage. No evidence was presented to the hearing which was conducted inquisitorial style before a military tribunal, no witnesses were called and no media, newspapers or news coverage was allowed to be present at his trial, nor was his own newspaper allowed to provide a lawyer to assist him with his defence. He was sentenced to death and Mrs. Parish who gave him the lift was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.
The system that operates in Iraq, as I understand it, is that there is no appeal to any superior tribunal and only the President of Iraq, who in effect is the dictator of Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein, has the power to commute that sentence of death. In accordance with the practice that operates in Iraq, that sentence could be summarily carried out at any time and an announcement made later that it had been carried out. That is why this matter is so particularly urgent and why I am asking the Minister to make immediate and urgent representations to the President of Iraq for a reprieve for this unfortunate man who, quite clearly, is no spy but was carrying out the normal function of a journalist. This is a harsh and brutal sentence but entirely in accord with the kind of activities the Iraqis have been getting up to in recent years.
You will recall, a Cheann Comhairle, that an Amnesty report on Iraq found that 30 different types of torture are used there, some of which are too ghastly to mention. The racial attacks on the Kurdish nation in Iraq have been well documented. Many thousands have been killed and it is estimated that 3,000 towns and villages where the Kurds live have been destroyed. In the town of Hama 20,000 members of a tribe were decimated and killed, and that was reported in the media over the years. That is the kind of regime we are dealing with here. President Saddam Hussein is not a person to be motivated by compassion but he may be influenced to grant a reprieve by political pressure and political requests.
We in Ireland have quite a substantial trade exchange with Iraq and do an appreciable volume of trading with them. I would ask the Minister to tell the House that he will point out to President Saddam Hussein that this kind of brutality, the kind of trial conducted there and imposing the death sentence with no appeal for an alleged trumped-up charge of espionage in peace time, is repugnant to the basic humanitarian feelings of the Irish people. He should also point out that we would have to review our trading activities with that country unless a reprieve is granted. I would go further and ask the Minister, now that we hold the Presidency of the EC, to use that position to bring EC pressure to bear when making representations to the President of Iraq for clemency for this man. The Minister should ask him also, although it is not specifically on the subject but it is connected, to remit the savage sentence of 15 years' imprisonment on the nurse, Mrs. Parish, when all she did was to give the journalist a lift into the zone where this explosion had taken place.
I am aware that the Iraqis may be sensitive about their military activities. We know they conducted a prolonged brutal and bloody war with Iran in which, it is estimated, 500,000 people lost their lives. We know they used chemical weapons of a destructive nature in that war and that they are planning to manufacture nuclear warheads. All or any of those military facilities may have been involved in the explosion in that military zone, but in a time of peace, nothing warrants the imposition of the death sentence, something we abolished in all but a very few cases in this country and in respect of which a commitment is being given by the Government to introduce legislation. I am glad to be able to say that abolishing the death penalty offence of any kind is right and proper in a modern civilised society.
If this man's life is to be saved, speed and pressure are essential. We should point out to the President of Iraq that his trading links with this country, and indeed with the EC, could be jeopardised if he allows this sentence of death to be carried out on the journalist, Mr. Bazoft who, I am quite sure, in his cell in Baghdad, is relying on the media and freedom loving, civilised countries such as Ireland to bring pressure to bear against that kind of tyranny. I hope the Minister will respond positively and indicate that he will take strong and urgent steps against this savagery.
Ar dtús ba mhaith liom a rá go gcuirim fáilte roimh an tsuim atá ag an Teachta Taylor sa chás seo a bhaineann leis an Uasal Bazoft. I welcome the interest which the House and Deputy Taylor are taking in the case of the Iranian born journalist, Mr. Farzad Bazoft who on 10 March was sentenced to death in Iraq for alleged espionage. Deputies will recall that a British citizen, Mrs. Daphne Ann Parish, was sentended to 15 years imprisonment on the same occasion and an Iraqi codefendant was sentenced to ten years. As has been outlined this evening by Deputy Taylor, the charges arose out of an unauthorised visit which Mr. Bazoft, a journalist with the Observer newspaper, and Mrs. Parish, a nurse at the Ibn Al Bitar Hospital in Baghdad, paid to a military establishment near Baghdad last September.
The Deputy has asked if the Minister for Foreign Affairs will make urgent representations to the Government of Iraq for a reprieve of the death sentence imposed on Mr. Bazoft. I am pleased to tell the House that the Minister acted very promptly in organising an appeal for clemency to the Iraqi authorities.
It became known in the course of Saturday, 10 March that an Iraqi revolutionary court had sentenced Mr. Bazoft to death and Mrs. Parish to jail. The Minister and his Department secured the agreement of our partners in the Twelve to make an appeal on humanitarian grounds. This appeal was made to the Iraqi authorities at 8.30 (Irish time) on Sunday morning on behalf of the Twelve members of the European Community by the Troika of EC ambassadors — that is the Irish Ambassador accompanied by the Ambassadors of France and Italy.
The appeal for clemency which we made is based on humanitarian grounds. We earnestly appealed for clemency both for Mr. Bazoft and for Mrs. Parish and particularly asked that the death sentence on Mr. Bazoft not be carried out.
The Deputy referred to the need for speed when applying pressure. We made it quickly — within 24 hours of sentence being passed — because we were very concerned at the extremely severe sentences passed on subjects of a member state and particularly at the possibility that the death sentence on Mr. Bazoft could be carried out at any time.
In making the appeal, we have not made a judgment on whether the verdicts were justified. Our concern has been to ask the Iraqi authorities to spare Mr. Bazoft's life and to exercise clemency in respect of both sentences.
The ambassadors were received at high level in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The appeal for clemency was noted and the ambassadors were informed that it would be reported to higher authority.
In making the appeal, we were conscious that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iraq is a party, provides that anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. In the apparent absence of a provision for appeal from the judgment of a Revolutionary Court, as Deputy Taylor pointed out, the President of Iraq can commute the sentence. A request to the Iraqi authorities for clemency was thus the only option available to the Twelve in this case.
The action of the Twelve in appealing for clemency has been echoed in the actions of others, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
A man's life is at stake and is still at stake. Our efforts are concentrated on acting in a way that will be most effective in saving his life and obtaining clemency for him and for Mrs. Parish.
It is my earnest hope that these humanitarian appeals will be heard and that the sentences will be commuted.
I wish to express my appreciation to the Minister.