European Parliament member Gahler assumes sponsorship of Iranian prisoner of conscience Majid Tavakoli

In cooperation with the ISHR/IGFM, CDU European Parliament member Michael Gahler has assumed the political sponsorship of the student activist and Iranian prisoner Majid Tavakoli. According to ISHR/IGFM information, Tavakoli received a nine-year prison sentence due to, among others, "propaganda against the regime" and "insulting the Supreme Leader." Gahler praises the young man’s courage in speaking out against the Mullah regime. Tavakoli has become a symbolic figure of the student protest movement in Iran.

Majid Tavakoli (24) was arrested in December 2009 during the protest against the alleged electoral victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After the Iranian regime publicized humiliating photographs of him in womens clothing, many men showed their solidarity by uploading photos of them wearing Islamic headscarves onto the Internet.

In January 2010, the student was sentenced in a show trial to eight and a half years in prison because of "participation in illegal assemblies" and "insulting the Supreme Leader." At the beginning of May 2011, his sentence was raised to nine years. The reason for that was an open letter smuggled out of the prison on the December 7, 2010 International Day of Students, in which Tavakoli and a likewise imprisoned student activist Bahareh Heyadat (sentenced to ten years in prison) demanded academic freedom for Iranian universities and accused the Iranian regime of "tyranny."

Majid Tavakoli’s case is in many ways representative of the fates of numerous regime opponents, ISHR/IGFM Spokesman of the Board Martin Lessenthin reports: "Anyone who stands up for human rights in Iran can encounter absurd charges, public humiliation and inhumane prison conditions. It is therefore important that human rights defenders in Iran see that their stories are being heard abroad. The assumption of political sponsorships by prominent politicians is thus a strong signal."

Michael Gahler, European Parliament member, explains: "The stories of people like Majid Tavakoli make it again and again painfully clear before our eyes, how urgently we in the EU must stand up for the unconditional release of all the political prisoners in Iran and everywhere else." As a member of the Foreign Committee of the European Parliament, he will continue to work toward this goal. "If Europe wants to be a credible as a values-oriented community, the subject of human rights must be a cross-cutting issue of European foreign policy," Gahler underlines.