In a joint article published in the newspapers Libération and L’Humanité, and on the website of the French Human Rights League, a group of prominent French lawyers and human rights defenders called for predicating international relations with Iran to a moratorium on executions. The article, which comes in response to the alarming rise in the number of political executions in Iran, is co-authored by Dominique Attias, President of the Board of Directors of the European Bar Foundation; Patrick Baudouin, Honorary President of the French Human Rights League; William Bourdon, Lawyer and Founding President of the Sherpa Association; Jean-François Legaret, President of the Foundation for Middle East Studies (Femo); Jean-Pierre Mignard, Lawyer and essayist; and Gilbert Mitterrand President of the Danielle-Mitterrand Foundation France-Libertés.
The article follows recent death sentences by Iran’s judiciary against three political prisoners: Behrouz Ehsani, Mehdi Hassani, and Mohammad Javad Vafa’i Thani. These individuals were sentenced to death for participating in anti-government protests and accused of being associated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Lawyers and activists express grave concern about the lack of reaction from the French government and call for immediate international action to halt these executions.
As noted in the article, a growing movement inside Iran known as “No Execution Tuesdays” is gaining momentum. Every Tuesday, prisoners across the country protest against the death penalty by going on hunger strike. This movement reflects the rise of resistance within Iran against the repressive regime.
The authors warn that the silence of Western media and governments, especially in France, is tantamount to complicity in the atrocities committed. “Three other people have been sentenced to death in Iran. However, this has not been addressed in our media. Have we become indifferent to the horrors happening around us?”
The death sentences of Behrouz Ehsani, 69, Mehdi Hassani, 48, and Mohammad Javad Vafa’i Thani, 29, a former boxing champion, represent a continuation of the Iranian regime’s approach to suppressing dissent by spreading fear. In addition to these three, seven other political prisoners face imminent execution on similar charges, reflecting the regime’s ongoing efforts to silence dissent.
In a stark reminder of the ongoing atrocities, the articles refers to a August 2024 UN report by Professor Javaid Rehman, former Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran. The report condemns Iran for decades of “atrocity crimes,” including crimes against humanity, genocide, and extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s. The authors argue that these crimes continue with impunity, with the international community turning a blind eye to these atrocities.
The authors called on their government and other members of the international community to condition diplomatic and economic ties with Iran to a moratorium on executions. “Our silence and continued diplomatic relations with this execution-driven regime, while turning a blind eye to the catastrophe unfolding in Iran, is a betrayal of the principles of our republic and a contradiction to our international human rights obligations,” they wrote.
The article concludes with a call to action, urging the international community to mobilize all available resources to prevent further executions. The authors assert that diplomatic silence and inaction only enable the regime to continue its crimes.
In a moving final message, the authors expressed their solidarity with the Iranian people and their resistance, stressing that the international community must stand by them in their struggle for freedom and justice.