Resolution on the EU response to the protests and executions in Iran

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the EU response to the protests and executions in Iran.

The text adopted in plenary was tabled by the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA, ECR groups and Members.

On 13 September 2022, 22-year old Kurdish Iranian woman Jina Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s ‘morality’ police for an alleged failure to observe the mandatory veiling law. Jina Mahsa Amini was brutally tortured and died on 16 September 2022 while in police custody. A proper investigation has not been concluded. Following the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini, nation-wide protests broke out across the country, involving hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens representing all segments of society.

As of 16 January 2023, Iranian security forces had reportedly killed several hundreds of peaceful protesters, including dozens of children, and detained, arrested and abducted more than 20 000 demonstrators, among them human rights defenders, students, lawyers and civil society activists, including EU citizens and residents from Germany, Poland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

Furthermore, EU nationals are being arbitrarily detained in Iran. Amnesty International has found evidence that the Iranian regime continues to wield the death penalty as a weapon of repression to crush protest.

Parliament condemns in the strongest terms the death sentences against and executions of peaceful protesters in Iran, notably Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard, Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini. It demands the Iranian authorities to:

- immediately and unconditionally halt any plans to carry out executions and refrain from seeking further death sentences;

- establish an official moratorium on executions with the objective of abolishing the death penalty completely;

- quash all convictions and death sentences;

- ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all protesters sentenced to death;

- put an end to the crackdown on their own citizens;

- allow for an international, impartial and effective investigation into the regime’s human rights abuses;

- immediately release all individuals detained for their involvement in peaceful demonstrations, and all political prisoners;

- immediately release all EU nationals arrested and drop all charges against them.

Parliament called on the VP/HR and the Council to expand the EU sanctions list to all individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations and their family members and to consider sanctions against the 227 Members of the Iranian parliament who encouraged the use of death sentences.

Members called on the Council and Member States to add the IRGC to the EU list of terrorist organisations and to ban all economic and financial activities involving companies and businesses linked to the IRGC or persons affiliated to it, irrespective of the country of activity.

Member States are called on to commit to enabling Iranians to access a free internet despite the regime’s massive internet censorship. Parliament also urged them to exercise universal jurisdiction over all Iranian officials reasonably suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law and other grave violations of human rights.

The resolution called for the issuance of visas to be facilitated to any person who has a well-founded fear of persecution for peacefully exercising his or her right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in connection with the demonstrations in Iran.

Lastly, the resolution called for the expansion of restrictive measures in the light of the fact that Iran continues to provide unmanned aerial vehicles and plans to provide surface-to-surface missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine.