NCRI, 09 September 2010 – On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning increasing human rights violations in Iran while calling for the annulment of execution sentences.
The resolution also denounced the arrest and imprisonment of political and civil rights activists, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, and the continuation and growth of the number of execution sentences, including the barbaric death by stoning.
The European Parliament called for the prosecution and trial of those who have ordered or carried out rights violations in Iran and requested that they be banned from travelling to Europe.
The resolution specifically noted that “stoning sentence is in clear violation of Iran’s international obligations under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights” and “only recently Iran accepted, during its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, to respect at least the minimum standards and the provisions of ICCRP concerning the death penalty, for as long as it is maintained.”
The resolution expressed “horror and dismay” at the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani sentenced to death by stoning and urged regime authorities not to execute the 45 year old mother of two.
The statement also called on the regime “to introduce a moratorium on executions pending the abolition of the death penalty in accordance with UN General Assembly resolutions 62/149 and 63/168.”
It also called “for the existing list of individuals and organisations subject to the EU travel ban and freezing of assets to be extended to include those that are responsible for the violations of human rights, repression and curtailment of freedom in the country.”
The European Parliament’s resolution further called “on the Commission and Council to devise additional measures in the context of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and European immigration policy in order actively to protect Iranian human rights defenders.”
