More than three months after the death of the young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, the numerous demonstrations in Iran have led to thousands of arrests and several hundred deaths. A dozen death sentences were handed down. The wave of solidarity abroad is significant. This is also the case in Germany where more and more politicians are sponsoring political prisoners.
With our correspondent in Berlin,
Mahan Sadrat, a 23-year-old Iranian, was sentenced to death in early November. Justice accuses him of being at war with god and to have participated in one of the many demonstrations in the country in recent weeks during which he allegedly brandished a knife. However, a witness relativized his statements during the trial. A video showed that the prosecution case had been constructed from scratch. As her execution was imminent, she was suspended last week. The Iranian Supreme Court has just ordered that Mahan Sadrat be retried.
Lukas Benner is only three years older than the young Iranian. A member of the German Green Party, he has been a member of the Bundestag for a year. Without hesitation, he decided, like a hundred other parliamentarians, to sponsor Mahan Sadrat, as he did last year for a Belarusian political prisoner. Last Thursday, Lukas Benner posted a photo of the young Iranian on his Twitter account, commenting: ” The death sentence was suspended. It’s a huge relief “.
” Make a gesture for people who have incredible courage »
In other messages, the elected official denounces the Iranian regime. Together with Maryam Blumenthal, the chairwoman of the Green Party in Hamburg, whose family fled Tehran when she was two years old, Lukas Benner writes a letter to the Iranian ambassador to Germany. The two elected officials are protesting against a procedure “ contrary to the principles of the rule of law “, denounce “ a staged trial intended to scare those fighting for their freedom “. The letter has so far remained unanswered.
” It is not a question of putting myself forward but of making a gesture for people who have incredible courage. It’s the least I can do so they won’t be forgotten “Explains Lukas Benner, interviewed by RFI. The Green MP from Aix-la-Chapelle will continue his action with others until at least Mahan Sadrat is freed. ” It may be a bit utopian, but in absolute terms, I would like to meet him one day in a free Iran and have a tea with him. hopes Lukas Benner.
Publish messages of support on social networks, denounce the practices of the Tehran regime, challenge Iranian diplomats, address the various European and international bodies in charge of human rights… These are the different means available to these godfathers to defend a political prisoner, to prevent him from falling into oblivion, to compel Iran if necessary to react. It is difficult to say whether the campaign in favor of Mahan Sadrat led to the authorities’ decision to try him again.
Martin Lessenthin, spokesperson for the German section of the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) is convinced of the usefulness of such sponsorships: “ International public opinion, the media can protect the people concerned, contribute at least to an improvement in their conditions of detention, to the cancellation of a death sentence, to a reduction in sentences. For a country like Iran, Germany is an important country, politically and economically, whether it concerns negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme, sanctions, visas in general or the possibility for dignitaries of the diet in need of treatment in Germany “.
An action relayed by civil society
The IGFM has been offering German politicians the opportunity to sponsor political prisoners who are in urgent need of help for twelve years. The organization researches, hard, collects facts and passes them on to elected officials who support this initiative.
The reaction of the Iranian media after the social-democrat deputy Hakan Demir sponsored the two brothers Farzad and Farhad Tahazadeh, also condemned to death, confirms that Tehran does not remain insensitive to this campaign of international solidarity. The videos of the SPD parliamentarian have reached over a million people. Iranian television used the photo of the German MP in a report denouncing ” lies of the chosen one.
” Their reaction shows that the regime takes these sponsorships seriously and that the echo they give to these individual cases is not equal to itcomments Hakar Demir, interviewed by RFI. It’s also a good thing that people are talking about it in Germany. The reactions here are overwhelmingly positive and support for such action. I will continue this fight until an execution is ruled out and the two brothers Farzad and Farhad Tahazadeh are released. »
The long-standing action of the IGFM organization for such sponsorship of political prisoners is today relayed in the case of Iran by initiatives of civil society, in particular of people living in Germany and of Iranian origin. Mariam Claren fights tirelessly to obtain the release of her mother, who has been detained for two years in Iran. Nahid Taghavi had left his country with his daughter, at the time a baby, in the 80s to settle in Germany, but had been returning to Iran regularly for twenty years. Daniela Sepehri is a well-known activist among opponents of the Iranian regime in Germany.
After her father’s conversion to Christianity, which had led to his death sentence, the young woman’s parents had to leave Iran at the end of the 1990s. With Mariam Claren, Daniela Sepehri established a list of more than 200 political prisoners and appealed to many political leaders to obtain their sponsorship.