What changed between the resolution motion and the resolution motion joint

Removed:B90443/2020

Added:European Parliament resolution on Iran, in particular the case of 2012 Sakharov Prize Laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh

Removed:European Parliament resolution on Iran, in particular the case of 2012 Sakharov Prize laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh

(2020/2914(RSP))

The European Parliament,

Change 1

Changed:– having regard to its resolution of 13 Decemberprevious 2018resolutions on Iran, notablyin theparticular casethat of Nasrin Sotoudeh; as well as its previous resolutions including its most recent of13 December 18 20192018 on theIran, violentnotably crackdownthe oncase theof recentNasrin protestsSotoudeh, inand Iran;that of 1917 September 2019 on Iran, notably the situation of women’s rights defenders and imprisoned EU dual nationals and of 14 March 2019 on Iran, notably the case of human rights defenders,nationals,

Change 2

Removed:having regard to the EU Council decision of 8 April 2019 to extend its restrictive measures for a further 12 months in response to serious human rights violations in Iran, and EU Council Conclusions of 4 February 2019 on Iran,

Added:– having regard the statement of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of 9 December 2020 on Iran, requesting the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh,

Removed:Having regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998 of 7 December 2020 concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses

Added:– having regard to the statement of the Spokesperson of the European External Action Service (EEAS) of 12 December 2020 on the execution of Mr Ruhollah Zam,

Change 3

Changed:Having– regardhaving toregard the statement of the EUOHCHR Highof Representative’s25 spokespersonNovember 2020 calling on theIran executionto ofhalt Ruhollahthe Zamexecution of 12 DecemberAhmadreza 2020;Djalali,

Change 4

Changed:Having– regardhaving toregard the statement of the EuropeanUN Parliament’sSpecial Sub-CommitteeRapporteur on Humanthe Rightssituation (DROI)of human rights in the Islamic Republic of 28Iran of 26 October 2020 “Nasrinurging Sotoudeh:accountability MEPsfor callviolent onprotest Irancrackdowns toand immediatelyhis releasereport of 21 July 2020 on the Sakharovsituation Prizeof laureatehuman fromrights prison”in the Islamic Republic of Iran,

Change 5

Removed:having regard to the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, on the death penalty, on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and on freedom of expression online and offline,

Added:– having regard to the 5th European Union – Iran High Level Dialogue of 9 December 2020,

Changed:– having regard to the latest report of the UN SpecialEU RapporteurGuidelines on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran of 18Human JulyRights 2019,Defenders,

Change 6

Removed:Having regard to the latest statements of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the 33-year prison sentence of lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, the imminent execution of Swedish-Iranian academic Mr. Ahmadreza Djalali; the detention of British-Iranian photographer Ms. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and journalist Ms. Narges Mohammadi ;

Added:– having regard to the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty, on Torture and on Freedom of Expression,

Removed:having regard to the Iranian President’s Charter on Citizens’ Rights,

Added:– having regard to the awarding of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Nasrin Sotoudeh in 2012,

Changed:– having regard to Rulethe 132(2)Universal Declaration of itsHuman RulesRights of Procedure,1948,

Change 7

Removed:Whereas Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament in 2012;

Added:– having regard to Rule 144(5) and 132(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

Removed:Whereas Ms. Sotoudeh has actively defended prisoners of conscience, unlawfully detained protesters following the 2009 mass protests against election fraud, bloggers, journalists and lawyers, women rights, children rights and religious minorities’ rights;

Added:A. whereas Nasrin Sotoudeh, the winner of the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, is an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and political prisoner who, over the past 15 years, has fought for the rights of women, children, religious minorities, journalists and artists, as well as those facing the death penalty, and as a result, has been continuously targeted and harassed by the Iranian authorities and has been arrested and imprisoned several times; whereas her prosecution and the charges brought against her demonstrate the grave extent to which the Iranian judiciary is criminalising human rights activism;

Removed:Whereas Ms. Sotoudeh was detained arbitrarily from 2010 to 2013 in dreadful conditions, facing a 6-year sentence for “endangering Iran’s national security”, according to Iranian authorities; whereas after her sudden release in 2013, a delegation of the European Parliament was able to meet her in Tehran in December 2013; whereas she was repeatedly detained again, on dubious charges, on a number of occasions since;

Added:B. whereas Nasrin Sotoudeh has been arbitrarily detained since 13 June 2018 for representing women who protested against Iran’s mandatory hijab law and was sentenced in absentia in March 2019 to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes; whereas UN experts have on numerous occasions raised serious concerns that her current detention is arbitrary and called for her release;

Removed:Whereas Ms. Sotoudeh has been arbitrarily detained since 13 June 2018 for her support for peaceful protests against torture and the compulsory wearing of the headscarf for women; whereas she was sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes for “endangering national security, spreading propaganda, membership of illegal groups, encouraging people to engage in corruption and prostitution, and appearing without the sharia-sanctioned headscarf”;

Added:C. whereas Nasrin Sotoudeh was temporarily released on 7 November 2020 following a positive test for COVID-19; whereas she was ordered to return to Qarchak prison, a women’s detention centre in Teheran known for cruel and inhuman detention conditions, on 2 December 2020; whereas this decision on the part of the Iranian authorities may have life-threatening consequences for her and further extends her arbitrary imprisonment in violation of Iran’s obligations under international human rights law;

Removed:Whereas her health worsened following her hunger strike from 11 August to 25 September 2020, as she called for all political prisoners to be released; Whereas she was allowed to undergo advanced medical checks and treatment for her heart and pulmonary diseases on 7 November 2020 outside of prison; Whereas three weeks later she was arrested and sent back to Qarchak’s prison, a woman detention center in Teheran known for cruel and inhuman detention conditions, on 2 December 2020;

Added:D. whereas Nasrin Sotudeh’s family, relatives and friends, notably her husband Reza Khandan, have been targeted by the Iranian authorities with the aim of silencing them and stopping any campaigning for the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh;

Removed:Whereas EU nationals such as Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali are being arbitrarily detained; whereas Mr. Djalali is a professor at Brussels’ VUB University and Italy’s Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale; whereas he was arrested in April 2016 upon visiting his family in Iran, remained in detention without an arrest warrant or a lawyer for 10 months until he was sentenced to death on October 2017 for “corruption on earth” in a grossly unfair trial with so-called confessions following torture and prolonged solitary confinement; whereas he has received threats from Iranian officials to kill him and his family in Sweden and Iran; whereas in a letter written from Evin political prison, he wrote that the reason behind his detention was that he objected to spying for Iran against European institutions; whereas Mr. Djalali was informed on 24 November 2020 that his execution was imminent;

Added:E. whereas the arrest of Nasrin Sotoudeh is part of an intensified crackdown against women’s rights defenders in Iran; whereas women’s rights defenders who have actively campaigned to enhance women’s empowerment and rights have suffered harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and their rights to a fair trial due process have been violated;

Removed:Whereas EU national and prominent French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, research director at Sciences Po Paris, has been arbitrarily detained since June 2019 at Evin prison; whereas she was originally charged with espionage which was dropped in January 2020; whereas she was then sentenced to six years in prison in May 2020 under equally dubious charges of “propaganda against the political system and collusion to endanger national security”; whereas she has been under travel ban and house arrest since her conditional release for health reasons in October 2020;

Added:F. whereas Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish medical doctor and academic and professor at VUB University in Belgium and Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale in Italy who was sentenced to death on spurious espionage charges in October 2017, has reportedly been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution, despite widely held findings which confirm that his trial was grossly unfair and that his conviction was based on a forced confession extracted under torture; whereas he has received threats from Iranian officials to kill him and his family in Sweden and Iran; whereas in a letter written from Evin political prison, he wrote that the reason behind his detention was that he objected to spying for Iran against European institutions; whereas Dr Djalali was informed on 24 November 2020 that his execution was imminent;

Removed:Whereas EU national German-Iranian national Nahid Taghavi and British-Iranian conservationist Morad Tahbaz remain unjustly detained, as well as British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who remains under travel ban;

Added:G. whereas on 12 December 2020, journalist Ruhollah Zam was executed by hanging following a rushed Supreme Court decision of 8 December 2020 to uphold his capital sentence for vague charges of ‘corruption on earth’, which were supported by forcibly extracted confessions; whereas Mr Zam, who had been granted asylum in France in 2009 and ran a popular Telegram channel critical of the Iranian authorities, was lured to Iraq and kidnapped and taken to Iran by Iranian authorities; whereas his execution for exercising his right to freedom of expression constitutes a blatant violation of international human rights law;

Removed:Whereas journalist Ruhollah Zam, who lived in France under asylum status, was charged with dubious charges of “corruption on earth” and executed on 12 December 2020, after his abduction by Iranian operatives in Iraq in September 2019, following his coverage of the 2017 economic protests in Iran and his management of a popular anti-government news channel; whereas Iran is running hostile operations on EU territory, harassing and threatening Iranian journalists and activists living in the EU and their relatives in Iran;

Added:H. whereas the EU national and prominent French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, a research director at Sciences Po University Paris, has been arbitrarily detained since June 2019 at Evin prison;

Removed:Whereas the violent crackdown on protesters from November 2019 and civil society in general has continued as another chapter in the Iranian regime’s longstanding repression; whereas human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, members of minority groups and online activists face increased harassment, arbitrary arrest, detention and torture for their peaceful activities; Whereas of prisoners of conscience have been excluded from clemency and temporary releases in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic to reduce overcrowding in prisons;

Added:I. whereas EU-Iranian dual nationals continue to be arrested, with arrest followed by prolonged solitary confinement and interrogations, with a lack of due process, no access to a fair trial and long prison sentences based on vague or unspecified ‘national security’ and ‘espionage’ charges; whereas Iran does not recognise dual nationality, thereby limiting the access foreign embassies have to their dual nationals being held there;

Removed:Whereas the use of death sentences against protesters has been increasing, with a pattern of so-called confessions extracted under torture after which protesters are executed without informing their lawyer or family members, as in the case of two people executed on charges of murder in connection with the protests in August and September 2020 in Esfahan and Shiraz; whereas Iran is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China;

Added:J. whereas Iranian courts fall short in providing due process and fair trials, with denial of access to legal counsel, particularly during the investigation period, and denial of consular, UN or humanitarian organisation visits; whereas sentences by the Iranian judiciary are often based on vague or unspecified national security and espionage charges; whereas there are no independent mechanisms for ensuring accountability within the judiciary, and serious concerns remain over the politicisation of judges;

Removed:Whereas mass surveillance technologies are being used to quell online and street protests, including through online censorship; whereas state media have run disinformation campaigns against protesters and human rights defenders, involving leading national figures to distort the November 2019 protests;

Added:K. whereas civil society protests in Iran against poverty, inflation, corruption and political authoritarianism have been met by the Iranian authorities with severe repression; whereas the Iranian intelligence service has intensified its crackdown on civil society workers and human rights defenders, lawyers, environmental activists, women’s rights defenders, students, journalists, teachers, truck drivers and peaceful activists;

Removed:Whereas its resolution of 25 October 2016 on the EU strategy towards Iran after the nuclear agreement stresses the importance of upholding the EU human rights’ guidelines, including on human rights defenders;

Added:L. whereas UN human rights experts have called on Iran to guarantee the rights of human rights defenders and lawyers who have been jailed for publicly supporting protests against the mandatory wearing of the hijab in Iran and have reiterated grave concerns with regard to the continuing executions of juvenile offenders in Iran;

Removed:Whereas Iranian courts regularly fall short in providing due process and fair trials, with the denial of access to legal counsel and denial of visits by representatives of consulates, the UN and humanitarian organisations; whereas sentences by the Iranian judiciary are often based on vague national security and espionage charges;

Added:M. whereas there have been numerous reports regarding the inhuman and degrading conditions in prisons and the refusal to provide adequate access to medical care during detention with the aim of intimidating, punishing, or coercing detainees, in contravention of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners;

Removed:Firmly condemns the detention of 2012 Sakharov Laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh; urges her immediate and unconditional release as well as the release of all prisoners of conscience in Iran, including protesters, journalists, media workers, political dissidents, artists, writers and human rights defenders, including lawyers, women’s rights defenders, labour rights activists, minority rights activists, anti-death penalty campaigners and those demanding truth, justice and reparation for the mass extrajudicial executions of the 1980s;

Added:N. whereas dozens of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and activists continue to remain behind bars for peaceful activism and have been excluded from clemency and temporary releases implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce overcrowding in prisons;

Removed:Urges Iranian authorities to guarantee Ms. Sotoudeh’s physical and mental safety and provide her with urgent, specialised medical care, as for all other prisoners in need; Deplores Iran’s record of withholding medical treatment to human rights defenders;

Added:O. whereas the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in his annual report delivered to the UN General Assembly on 21 July 2020, was dismayed by Iran’s continued use of the death penalty and its high execution figures and affirmed that reports received demonstrate a continued trend of restricting freedom of expression and ongoing discrimination against minorities and women;

Removed:Urges Iran to immediately halt the imminent execution of Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, release and compensate him, and to stop threatening his family in Iran and Sweden; Calls on all EU Member States to jointly undertake public statements and diplomatic initiatives to monitor unfair trials and visit prisons where human rights defenders and other prisoners of conscience are being detained, including EU nationals in Iran, in line with the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders;

Added:P. whereas in this same report, the UN Special Rapporteur affirms that despite clear evidence that Iranian security forces used excessive and lethal force which caused the deaths of over 300 people, including women and children, at protests in November 2019, nearly one year on, the Iranian authorities have failed to conduct an investigation compliant with international standards;

Removed:Urges Iran to immediately drop all charges and lift all travel restrictions on EU nationals subject to arbitrary detention and other restrictive measure, such as in the case of French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and German-Iranian architect Nahid Taghavi;

Added:Q. whereas the use of death sentences against protesters has been increasing, with a pattern of so-called confessions extracted under torture, after which protesters are executed without their lawyers or family members being informed, as was the case for wrestling star Navid Afkari, murdered by execution on 12 September 2020 for charges he fully denied; whereas his brothers remain in prison and have received very lengthy sentences for having participated in anti-government protests;

Removed:Calls on Iran to stop its planned smear campaigns against unjustly detained EU nationals and Iranians with ties to EU Member States, solely for the purpose of national propaganda, brandishing them as so-called spies on Press TV and other regime-controlled media outlets;

Added:R. whereas Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of an EEAS StratCom unit dedicated to the Middle East, notably Iran;

Removed:Condemns in the strongest terms the execution of Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam on 12 December 2020; expresses its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues; Calls on EU and Member States’ institutions to provide a more effective protection to Iranian nationals residing in the EU who are subjected to harassment and threats from Iranian intelligence services;

Added:S. whereas mass surveillance technologies are being used to quell online and street protests, including through online censorship; whereas state media have run disinformation campaigns against protesters and human rights defenders, with the involvement of leading national figures, with the aim of distorting the November 2019 protests;