New York - As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the podium at the United Nations to address the General Assembly for the sixth year in a row, a survivor of the Iranian regime's repression at a parallel human rights summit in New York denounced Ahmadinejad's "repulsive lies and conspiracy theories."
"As a survivor of nearly a decade of torture and abuse in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, I felt sickened and outraged by Ahmadinejad's obscene words," said Ahmad Batebi, a leading Iranian dissident who was granted asylum by the United States government. "Yet again, Ahmadinejad defiled the UN with his conspiracy theories about the 9/11 atrocities and his denial of the Nazi Holocaust. And yet again, the UN has provided this monster with a platform, while the tens of thousands of Iranians who have suffered under his regime are denied a voice."
In an op-ed published on Fox News, Batebi declared: "Were I to meet Ahmadinejad, I would tell him about the occasion when my head was shoved into a drain full of excrement. I'd tell him about the mock executions I was subjected to. I'd tell him about how I was forced to watch my closest friends being viciously beaten, and how their cries for mercy still ring in my ears."
Asserting that Iran's regime will meet the same fate as other regimes in the Middle East that were recently overthrown, Batebi offered the following advice to Ahmadinejad: "Make the most of your visit to this wonderful city, whose symbol is the Statue of Liberty. It may be your last."
Batebi added: "I call on the UN to heed the Declaration being issued today at We Have A Dream: Global Summit Against Persecution and Discrimination, in which I am proud to take part. We have reaffirmed the primacy of liberty as expressed in the UN's own Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The citizens of Iran, along with the citizens of all authoritarian regimes, deserve no less."
