Iranian Parliamentarians Slam France’s Support For Protesters

The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said on Tuesday only 30 of the 57 detained journalists have been reportedly released so far.

According to the Federation, five journalists were serving their sentences in Iranian prisons before protests erupt following the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.

In the past months, the International Federation of Journalists issued several statements calling on the Iranian authorities to end arrests of journalists and to release those imprisoned immediately.

Anthony Bellanger, Secretary General of the Federation of Journalists said, “We ask the Iranian authorities not to use the coverage of national protests as an excuse to suppress the media. Every citizen in Iran has the right to know what is going on.”

He went on to say that “Our colleagues should be released immediately and be allowed to report the events freely.”

“We remind the Iranian authorities that freedom of expression is a fundamental right of all Iranian citizens, including journalists,” underlined Bellanger.

Niloufar Hamedi, Elahe Mohammadi, and Ehsan Pirbornabash are among the journalists who are still in custody.

There are no exact figures on the number of people arrested during the protests, but some sources say nearly 20,000 people have been detained.

Lawmaker Shahryar Haydari said in an interview that "the country cannot be controlled with military confrontations with protesters."

He added that the committee is reviewing the government's approach to offer its suggestions for a way out of the current crisis. However, he added that it is up to the Iranian Judiciary to decide who should be pardoned and who should be punished.

Haydari said the Judiciary should pardon all those who simply protested in the streets and did not engage in violence. Referring to the execution of two protesters in less than one week, the lawmaker suggested that the government should not follow policies that increase tensions in society.

He further claimed that there have been fewer protests in recent days, but the government should not think protesters have given up their demands. The government should listen to them and President Ebrahim Raisi should be personally accountable for all the problems in the country.

However, a hardliner lawmaker Mostafa Mirsalim said Wednesday that the Judiciary should execute protesters quickly - within ten days after their arrest.

Haydari, stressing that military confrontation with the protests cannot solve the country's problems, called for economic solutions for the people's financial problems.

But that is one goal Raisi cannot accomplish by himself without a major change in foreign and domestic policies, a herculean task hinging on support by the authoritarian ruler Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile, reformist sociologist and political activist Hamid Reza Jalaeipour said in an interview with Etemad Online that "Protests have still not entered a revolutionary phase, but they will, if the situation becomes increasingly critical. He added that the execution of a young protester, Mohsen Shekari on December 8 has deeply moved and agitated even those Iranians who were not actively taking part in the protests.

Jalaeipour said that most of those protesting in the streets are women and young Iranians including students. Nonetheless, he added, around 70 percent of Iranians are still silent and have not aligned with the opposition although they are not happy with the government's performance.

He pointed out that what is happening in Iran is not a riot. "Riots end soon but this movement is continuing. It has so many artistic and cultural manifestations and it has attracted worldwide support," Jalaipour said, and added that the government should allow these demands to be voiced. But unfortunately, the more politically active the society becomes, the less openness the government shows.

"During the past 90 days while this movement has been going on, the government has not tried to convince the people that it cares for their views. If this approach continues…a revolutionary phase might start," he said, adding that "The government has managed to control the situation during the past three months, but it cost hundreds of lives."

Jalaeipour added that some of the five million elders in the country are looking for conservative solutions. But this country has about 20 million youths and some 38 million others in between the two groups. The ideologically minded elders control the government regardless of what the other 58 million want. If they feel really fed up, they might end their silence.

Meanwhile, reformist politician Mehdi Ayati told Rouydad24 that if the government uses more violence against protesters, street unrest might go underground. He stressed: "Violence is not the right answer to [protests.]"

Although it might be too late, people will be happy when the government takes their demands and views seriously. But it has ignored the public’s demands and views for a long time. It should have attended to the needs of young people and women earlier.

Ayati, a former lawmaker, said that if the government wants to make up for its shortcomings, the first step is to avoid violence. He warned that violence will boost dissent to an uncontrollable level.

“In hearings on cases of rioters in Tehran province, 160 people were sentenced to between five to 10 years in prison, 80 people to two to five years and 160 people up to two years,” Tehran’s judiciary chief Ali Alghasi-Mehr said Tuesday.

He also noted that 70 people have been fined without giving further details.

This comes a day after the regime hanged the second protester charging him with killing two members of security forces.

The Islamic Republic announced Monday that Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, had been executed in public in the north-eastern religious city of Mashhad.

Mohsen Shekari was the first protester hanged on December 8. The 23-year-old man was accused by the judiciary of just blocking a street and injuring a Basij militia.

Meanwhile, the number of people killed by security forces during the protest movement since mid-September has risen to 493.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) announced in its latest report that from September 17 until Tuesday, December 13, at least 493 protestors have been killed, of which at least 68 were minors.

While the Islamic Republic has not provided accurate figures of those detained in the recent protests, the watchdog went on to say that at least 18,424 protesters have been arrested including 632 students.

Responding to the Iranian authorities’ public execution of Majidreza Rahnavard, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said Monday “the horrific public execution…exposes Iran’s judiciary for what it is: a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on protesters daring to stand up to the status quo.”

The Islamic Republic hanged a second protester, Majidreza Rahnavard in less than a week in public on Monday after charging him with the alleged killing two members of security forces.

Eltahawy further added that the arbitrary execution of the youth “lays bare the extent of the Iranian authorities’ assault on the right to life and their disregard for even maintaining a façade of meaningful judicial proceedings.”

Amnesty urged the international community to take all necessary measures to pressure the Iranian authorities to stop executions and annule death sentences.

The body has identified 20 people at risk of execution in connection with the protests among them 11 sentenced to death.

Three individuals, according to Amnesty, have undergone trials on capital charges and are either at risk of being sentenced to death or may have already been sentenced to death, with no publicly available information on their status.

Six others may be awaiting or undergoing trial on charges carrying the death penalty, stated the international human rights organization.

Ye-One Rhie, a member of the Bundestag who has undertaken political sponsorship of imprisoned dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi said in a series of tweets Monday that she has written this to the Iranian ambassador, the EU special representative for human rights, the council of Europe commissioner for human rights, and the high commissioner for human rights about Toomaj’s case and expressed her great concerns for his well-being.

The 32-year-old rapper who was violently arrested in late October and currently in detention in Dastgerd Prison is awaiting a verdict which many fear could be a death sentence for “corruption on earth”. In her tweets, Rhie underlined that the authorities have deprived Toomaj of any contact with the lawyer he and his family wish to represent him. His lawyer, Amir Raesian, says he has not been allowed access to the case files yet.

The number of German MPs taking political sponsorship of Iranian protesters is growing. Carmen Wegge has declared herself the sponsor of Armita Abbasi, a young woman of 20, who was missing since her arrest on October 10 before being taken to a hospital in Karaj on October 18 by security forces with multiple injuries including internal bleeding and evidence of repeated rape.

Political patronage or sponsorship (politische patenshaften in German) is a way for German parliamentarians to select a specific political prisoner and use their political weight to campaign for the prisoner’s freedom. This is mainly done by addressing the ambassador and the relevant government and international institutions dealing with human rights.

“It is the special responsibility of politicians to make the human rights situation around the world an issue – not just in their own. The violation of human rights must not be accepted anywhere, because all people are free and born with equal rights,” the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) recently quoted Iran's Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi as saying who added that politicians in other countries should actively raise human rights issues in bilateral talks with the Iranian government. 

Clara Anne Bünger, founder and board member of Equal Rights Beyond Borders, a Greek-German human rights organization enforcing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, Germany, and throughout the EU, has taken on the political sponsorship of the 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou who has been sentenced to death on the charge of “corruption on earth” by the notorious Revolutionary Court judge Abolghasem Salavati.

In a video message circulated on social media two weeks ago, Ghobadlou’s mother called for help for her son before it was too late. She said the court refused to allow his defense lawyer to attend the secret trial. “They sentence him to death in the first session of the court,” she said.

“The EU must ensure that judges like him never find a safe place in the EU,” Bünger said in a tweet.

Salavati and other judges of the Revolutionary Court are famous for harsh sentencing including many death sentences in high-profile trials of political figures and activists, journalists and others over the years and lack of due process in these cases.

Judge Salavati who has recently sentenced Ghobadlou and at least five other protesters to death was sanctioned by the European Union in 2011 and by the US Treasury Department in 2019 for human rights abuses.

Two other Bundestag representatives, Lukas Benner, and Maryam Blumental, have also jointly undertaken to politically sponsor Mahan Sadrat (spelled incorrectly as Sedarat in some sources). The 22-year-old who has been convicted of “waging war against God” in a sham trial and sentenced to death is at imminent risk of execution. Mahan denied being in possession of a knife in court which the prosecutor claims he used to “cause an environment of insecurity and fear” to the people.

Another young man, Mohammad-Mehdi Karami, is being sponsored by Helge Limburg. “The regime in Iran assumes that he was involved in a killing. In truth he should die because he stands up for democracy and human rights. His execution would be a judicial killing,” Limburg tweeted Monday.

Mostafa Nili, a well-known lawyer who has represented many activists, prisoners of conscience and protesters in the past is being sponsored by Norbert Röttgen. Nili was arrested on November 7 by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Intelligence Organization (SAS) along with Hassan Younesi, another human rights lawyer.