[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2473-S2474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 599--PROTECTING THE IRANIAN POLITICAL REFUGEES, 
  INCLUDING FEMALE FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS, IN ASHRAF-3 IN ALBANIA

  Mr. TILLIS (for himself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Boozman, Mr. 
Menendez, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Coons, and Mr. Booker) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 599

       Whereas, since October 2023, the Iranian regime has 
     increasingly acted as the epicenter of terrorism in the 
     region, from supporting proxies that vehemently oppose peace 
     in the Middle East, to threatening commercial shipping and 
     free trade in the Red Sea and from targeting American forces 
     in the region, to providing missile and drones to rogue 
     actors, all of which pose serious risks to regional peace and 
     security and endanger the vital interests of the United 
     States;
       Whereas Iran remains the world's leading state sponsor of 
     terrorism today;
       Whereas the Iranian people have rejected the regime ruling 
     Iran through several rounds of major demonstrations, 
     engulfing all 31 provinces of Iran calling for change;
       Whereas the Iranian regime has resorted to killing, 
     torture, sexual violence, and imprisonment of protesters, and 
     several thousand protesters since 2017 have been killed, and 
     many more have been imprisoned;
       Whereas the Iranian regime has been intent on eliminating 
     the Iranian political refugees who survived Tehran's 
     repression and were first based in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, in the 
     mid-1980s;
       Whereas, starting in 2012, the United States Government and 
     the United Nations initiated the relocation of nearly 3,000 
     Iranian dissidents from Camp Ashraf, Iraq, where they were 
     repeatedly attacked by the Iranian regime's proxies, and 
     facilitated their gradual relocation in 2013, 2014, and 2015 
     to Albania;
       Whereas the relocation of these Iranian political refugees 
     to Albania from Iraq was completed in September 2016, and the 
     refugees, a third of them women, are now residing in Ashraf-3 
     near Tirana in Albania;
       Whereas, on April 19, 2016, before the relocation of the 
     majority of the residents to Albania, in a letter to a 
     European Parliament Vice-President, the Prime Minister of 
     Albania wrote, ``Albania is fully engaged and committed to 
     ensure for the Iranian refugees all rights stipulated in the 
     Geneva Convention 1951, in the European Human Rights 
     Convention and in the whole international legislation.'';
       Whereas over 900 women and men of Ashraf-3 are former 
     political prisoners who endured torture while in prisons and 
     many of them are witnesses of the 1988 massacre of political 
     prisoners and other political killings in Iran, among them 
     eyewitnesses of crimes committed by Ebrahim Raisi;
       Whereas these witnesses must be fully protected for 
     potential testimonies before international courts 
     investigating the 1988 massacre and other grave human rights 
     violations in Iran;
       Whereas, in November 2021, the Swedish Judiciary moved the 
     whole court in Stockholm to Albania for two weeks to 
     facilitate hearing testimonies of seven former Iranian 
     political prisoners now residing in Ashraf-3, whose testimony 
     was characterized as critical for a trial related to the 1988 
     massacre;
       Whereas, in December 2023, a Swedish court confirmed the 
     earlier ruling by the lower court of a life sentence for 
     Hamid Noury, implicated in the 1988 massacre where he was an 
     official in Gohardasht Prison;
       Whereas the Iranian regime has stepped up terrorist attacks 
     against its opponents and has used blackmail, terror threats, 
     hostage-taking, sham judicial proceedings, and other means of 
     intimidation against western nations to compel them to 
     silence Iranian opponents living abroad;
       Whereas, on several occasions, including in the last week 
     of December 2023, the Iranian regime carried out large-scale 
     cyberattacks against Albania to pressure the Government of 
     Albania to undermine or end its hosting of Iranian political 
     refugees;
       Whereas experience has shown that any lack of decisiveness 
     or concessions to Tehran only emboldens the Iranian regime 
     for its destructive actions;
       Whereas the Iranian regime has, over the past few months, 
     stepped up threats against Ashraf-3, and given what the 
     regime has done since October 7, 2023, far more vigilance on 
     the part of the United States is required to ensure the 
     complete protection and rights of Ashraf-3 residents in 
     Albania;
       Whereas, on December 12, 2023, the Iranian regime started 
     sham trials in absentia for 104 veteran members of the 
     Iranian Resistance, who, since years ago, have been primarily

[[Page S2474]]

     based in Europe, including in Albania, to create a phony 
     legal precedent against them and secure their extradition to 
     Iran by misusing INTERPOL Red Notices, impose limitations, or 
     set the stage for terror attacks against them;
       Whereas the Iranian regime is doing its utmost through any 
     means to prevent Ashraf-3 residents from speaking up against 
     the regime;
       Whereas the leadership role of women in Ashraf-3 has doubly 
     heightened the Iranian regime's misogynous hysteria against 
     the political refugees in Ashraf-3;
       Whereas over 3,600 parliamentarians around the world and 
     125 former world leaders have expressed their support for 
     Mrs. Maryam Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan for the Future of Iran, 
     which calls for the universal right to vote, free elections, 
     a market economy, separation of religion and state, and 
     advocates for gender, religious, and ethnic equality, a 
     foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence, peace in the 
     Middle East, and a nonnuclear republic Iran; and
       Whereas, in sharp contrast to Iran's institutionalized 
     misogyny, this Ten-Point platform has adequately addressed 
     women's equality, including ``complete gender equality in the 
     realms of political, social, cultural and economic rights. An 
     equal participation of women in political leadership, 
     abolishment of any form of discrimination. The right to 
     choose one's own clothing freely, the right to freely marry 
     and divorce, and to obtain education and employment. 
     Prohibition of all forms of exploitation against women under 
     any pretext.'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the Iranian political refugees in Ashraf-3, in 
     rejection of the Iranian regime's demands, must be afforded 
     their fundamental rights of freedom of expression and 
     assembly and legal political activities in Albania;
       (2) the United States Government condemns the Iranian 
     regime's threats and nefarious actions against the Government 
     of Albania, including cyberattacks and threats against the 
     Iranian dissidents in Ashraf-3 in Albania;
       (3) the United States Government should take prompt and 
     appropriate steps in accordance with international law, 
     including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 
     European Convention on Human Rights, and the 1951 Convention 
     Relating to the Status of Refugees, to help the Government of 
     Albania ensure and uphold all fundamental rights of Ashraf-3 
     residents within the framework of the above conventions, 
     including the right to life, liberty, security, protection of 
     property, and freedom of expression and assembly;
       (4) the United States Government strongly opposes Iran's 
     misuse of the INTERPOL Red Notices to impose restrictions or 
     limitations or set in motion the extradition of Iranian 
     dissidents to Iran; and
       (5) the United States Government must continue close and 
     regular cooperation with the Government of Albania and the 
     residents of Ashraf-3 to ensure the complete protection and 
     fundamental rights of Ashraf-3 residents.

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