Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the Government of Iran on the (a) destruction of the site of the mass grave of people killed in the 1988 prison massacre in Alivoz and (b) protection of that site to preserve forensic evidence for future investigations.

Although we have not received official confirmation of this, we are concerned about reports of plans to destroy grave sites related to the 1988 massacre. Whilst at present we have no plans to request an inquiry by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, we continue to take action with the international community to press for improvements on all human rights issues in Iran, including ending the death penalty and by supporting the work done by the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran. We also raise our concerns directly with the Iranian government and I was able to raise this directly with my Iranian counterpart during my visit to Tehran in August this year.