Bin Laden Deserved Fair Trial, Not Execution: Iran

Iran has come out to officially condemn the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Special Forces at a compound in northern Pakistan last week.

Speaking in Pretoria, South Africa, the Secretary General of Iran’s Supreme Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, said the Al-Qaeda chieftain deserved to have a fair trial rather than face a “unilateral execution” by American commandos.

“This [act] is banned by international law,” he declared.

“It is against fairness and justice. Even the most notorious terrorist should be put on trial. He should have a fair trial. A way to defend himself.”

Larijani’s remarks followed a meeting he had with Ebrahim Ebrahim, South African Deputy Foreign Minister.

The Iranian politician also claimed that the U.S. government had helped “these [terrorist] groups” for years before the September 11, 2001 attacks that bin Laden was blamed for.

“Iran was fighting Al-Qaeda years before 9/11 and the United States was helping these groups for years,” he said.

“We are not going to clean them up. Terrorism should be fought all over the world.”

Larijani then lashed out at the hypocrisy of nations that claim they are fighting terrorism,

“Countries who consider themselves the flag leaders of fighting terrorism are unfortunately making their capitals the best havens for flourishing terrorism. This is wrong,” he said.

“No country in the world should put itself in the position to interrogate a person, to indict a person, to pass judgment and to put it into action unilaterally.”