Politicians from Europe have begun sponsoring jailed Iranian protesters in the hope that by highlighting individual cases of injustice, the authorities will be forced to step back from handing down lengthy jail sentences or carrying out executions.
The executions of two demonstrators and threats to kill others suggest Tehran is set on the use of repression and fear to quell the protests.
However, there have been widespread demonstrations in Iran against the executions, including in the capital, Tehran, and the cities of Mashhad, Sanandaj, Karaj, Kermanshah, Babolsar and Tabriz. Students at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences held up placards reading: “You don’t object to these executions until your parents [are] executed?”
In a video published on social media on the evening of 12 December, a woman in Mashhad placed a rope around her neck and stood in the middle of the street in protest.
Eighteen female political prisoners, including the well-known women’s movement activist Narges Mohammadi, also published a letter calling for an end to the use of the death penalty. More than 230 Iranian civil activists have in a joint statement called for its abolition.
The recent release of a 15-year-old boy from detention two days after his mother gave a heart-rending interview in local media indicates that the regime may be nervous of bad publicity. The reformist Etemaad newspaper interviewed Elham Najaf, the mother of Amir Hossein Rahimi, who said she could not afford the bail for her son, who was accused of possessing a molotov cocktail.
Sonia Sharifi, a 17-year-old woman facing serious charges, was also released on Thursday night in Abdanan and greeted by cheering crowds as she stood on top of a car to salute them. She had been sponsored by Katja Leikert, a Christian Democrat member of the German parliament, who welcomed her temporary release. There is no evidence whether external pressure led to her release on bail.
Sponsoring MPs take responsibility for lobbying for the safety of individual prisoners, demanding information on their whereabouts and publicising their plight. As many as 30 Iranians in jail now have a European sponsor. The MPs also hope to highlight how Iran is not following its written penal code in administering justice, and is arresting lawyers, or denying the accused legal representation of their choice.
Martin Diedenhofen, an MP with Germany’s Social Democrat party (SDP), has adopted the case of 19-year-old Mohammad Broghni, vowing in a letter to the Iranian ambassador on Thursday to keep fighting for the man’s life. Broghni faces the imminent threat of execution in Rajaei Shahr prison in Karaj, where Mohsen Shekari was executed last week.
Ye-One Rhie, another SDP legislator, is sponsoring the imprisoned dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, also by sending protest letters to the Iranian ambassador. Carmen Wegge, also of the SDP, has declared herself the sponsor of Armita Abbasi, 20, who was taken to a hospital in Karaj on 18 October by security forces with multiple injuries, including internal bleeding and evidence of repeated rape.
Mostafa Nili, a lawyer who has represented many political prisoners in the past, is being sponsored by the CDU foreign affairs specialist Norbert Röttgen. Nili was arrested on 7 November by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
In the Netherlands, Sjoerd Wiemer Sjoerdsma, a liberal MP, said he was sponsoring Hamid Qara Hasanlu, an Iranian radiologist sentenced to death. The MP said he was writing letters to the Iranian ambassador, the EU special representative for human rights and the high commissioner for human rights.
In France, the leftist MP Elsa Faucillon said she was accepting sponsorship of Reza Aria, saying his execution was possible at any moment. The French Green MP Sophie Taillé-Polian said she was calling for the release of two brothers, Farhad and Farzad Tahazedeh.
In Austria, the Social Democrat human rights spokesperson Harald Troch has sponsored Mohammad Hosseini, who has been accused of killing a member of the Basiji security forces.
Although there is a debate about the value of prisoner sponsorship in practical terms, a willingness to lobby on behalf of a specific Iranian prisoner places some pressure on a country where at least some of the political elite are worried about its growing international isolation.
Outside Iran, the Iranian diaspora, acting on advice from human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the Norway-based Hengaw group, have issued warnings on social media that specific prisoners are in imminent danger of execution. Amnesty sent out an alert about the possible execution of Broghni.
Journalists conducting interviews from inside Iran are taking risks. Reporters Without Borders says 47 Iranian journalists have been imprisoned in 2022, 34 of them since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini that sparked the nationwide protests.
