Several European Parliament Members: Iran Should Release Political Prisoners Before Elections

29 members of the European Parliament emphasized the necessity of holding 'free and fair' presidential elections in Iran and the release of political prisoners before the elections in a letter to Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief. The letter highlighted the impact of the election results on Iran's future and its relations with the European Union, stating that 'it is essential that these elections are fair and free, and monitored by independent observers.' The authors of the letter urged Iranian authorities to take all necessary actions to respect Iran's internal and international commitments that guarantee a fair and free election. Many international organizations consider elections in Iran to be unfree, and the Islamic Republic has never accepted the presence of foreign observers in any election. In Iran's presidential elections, religious minorities are not allowed to run, and women are disqualified, with only a few candidates approved from hundreds of applicants in each election cycle. Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, the National Front organizations of Iran abroad, six Kurdish parties in Iran, and the Coalition for Democracy in Iran have called for a boycott of the upcoming presidential elections in Iran. Nevertheless, these 29 members of the European Parliament requested Federica Mogherini to discuss these demands with her counterparts in the Iranian government and convey to them that further development of relations between the European Union and Iran should only occur with 'respect for rights and improvement of the situation' of the Iranian people. The European Parliament members called on the Islamic Republic authorities to release journalists, political prisoners, and imprisoned Telegram channel managers before the elections and to protect civil society activists and journalists. Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, also announced the writing of this letter on her Twitter page. The publication of this letter comes at a time when Human Rights Watch also called on presidential candidates last Thursday to defend the rights of prisoners who are on hunger strike, mentioning the hunger strikes of Atena Daemi, Ismail Abdi, and Hengameh Shahidi. Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Eshaq Jahangiri, Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, and Mostafa Mir-Salim are the six approved candidates for the presidential election, but as Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, recently stated, none of them have a satisfactory human rights record. The request from 29 members of the European Parliament for the release of Telegram managers comes as, last Esfand (February-March), managers of several Telegram channels and a number of journalists, including Morad Saghafi, Ehsan Mazandarani, and Ramin Karimian, a researcher and translator, were arrested. Mahmoud Sadqi, a representative from Tehran, Hesameddin Ashna, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani, and several members of the Hope faction in Parliament reacted to these arrests, linking them to the 96 presidential election (2017). President Hassan Rouhani and Mahmoud Alavi, Iran's Minister of Intelligence, announced that the government opposes the arrest of Telegram channel managers. However, the Attorney General claimed that the arrested managers 'had planned for the elections.' According to Reporters Without Borders, the Islamic Republic of Iran currently has '28 imprisoned journalists and citizen journalists, making it one of the five largest prisons in the world for media activists, and the country ranked 165th out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.' Several labor activists are also imprisoned in Iran. Meanwhile, a recent joint report from the Human Rights Defenders Support Program and the Society for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran has called on UN special experts to pay clear attention to the 'alarming situation of trade union and labor rights activists in Iran' and to urge Iranian officials to 'end the repression and judicial harassment of labor activists and respect labor rights.'