23 of Esquerra’s elected representatives join an initiative that means to denounce and put a stop to the violation of human rights of Iranian political prisoners
Esquerra Republicana has launched a political campaign sponsoring several Iranian political prisoners who have been sentenced to death and who have in most cases suffered torture and abuse.
In order to help convey to the regime that the world is watching and that it cannot continue to perpetrate these serious and systematic violations of human rights, 23 of Esquerra’s elected representatives have joined a campaign that focuses on specific objectives in the defence of the human rights of Iran’s political prisoners, displaying solidarity with them, meaning to halt their death sentences, expressing interest in their physical condition and their legal situation in all these cases of political repression. Most of those deprived of their freedom and who are receiving sponsorship were arrested during the last several months of protest over the murder of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a Kurdish citizen, at the hands of the Iranian police.
“These gestures do not only help to denounce repression, but also mean to repeat the precedents of death sentences in Iran that have been halted thanks to international pressure,” said Esquerra’s Deputy Secretary General for International Relations, Jordi Solé. In this regard, Mr Solé was very pleased with Esquerra’s response to the initiative and added that “Solidarity is one of Esquerra Republicana’s cornerstones. We will continue to make these cases visible, denouncing the systematic violations of human rights.”
Once sponsorship has been assigned to each political representative, the procedure followed has been to send an email to the ambassador of Iran in Spain urging his country to immediately halt the execution of the sponsored prisoner, while expressing interest in their physical condition and legal situation. The action is then culminated with the publication of a message on social networks by the representatives publicly assuming political sponsorship of each prisoner.
The representatives involved in the initiative are the Members of the Catalan Parliament (MCP) Jordi Orobitg, Jordi Albert, Montserrrat Fornells, Adrià Guevara, José Rodríguez, Jenn Díaz and Pau Morales; Members of the Spanish Congress Gerard Alvárez, Montse Bassa, Maria Dantas, Inés Granollers, Joan Margall, Marta Rosique, Jordi Salvador and Carolina Telechea; Senators Sara Bailac, Laura Castel, Pau Furriol, Elisenda Pérez, Josep Maria Reniu, Ana Surra; as well as Esquerra MEPs Diana Riba and Jordi Solé.
The campaign has not only had an impact in Catalonia, as several members of parties with parliamentary representation in different European countries, including the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and La France Insoumise have also spearheaded similar initiatives, sponsoring prisoners in Iran and helping to generate greater pressure on the regime to put an end to this situation of injustice.