On the execution spree in Iran and confirmation of the death sentences of activists Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani

B100224/2025

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on the execution spree in Iran and confirmation of the death sentences of activists Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani

(2025/2628(RSP))

The European Parliament,

having regard to Rules 150(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

whereas Iran has dramatically intensified its use of the death penalty, with over 950 executions in 2024, twice as many as in the previous year, including against dissidents, women, journalists, and minorities, such as the Baháʼí; whereas this includes individuals arrested when they were minors, as well as European citizens;

whereas Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani face execution following a grossly unfair trial before a Revolutionary Court in Tehran, during which they were denied legal counsel and convicted on vague charges;

whereas both were held in prolonged pre-trial detention, denied family contact, and reportedly tortured;

whereas Mahvash Sabet, a 71-year-old Iranian Baha’i human rights defender, is serving a second 10-year prison sentence on baseless charges linked to her faith;

whereas Sabet was subjected to torture, resulting in serious injuries; whereas she suffered severe cardiac complications in January 2025 and was briefly released to recover, but is now at risk of being returned to prison despite medical advice;

Whereas Varisheh Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner, was arrested and sentenced to death in a sham trial;

Whereas the mullahs' regime also uses assassins to intimidate dissidents abroad, including the attempted assassination of U.S.-based journalist Masih Alinejad, though Russia-linked henchmen.

whereas the mullahs' regime uses hostage diplomacy and has imprisoned European citizens

Condemns the use of the death penalty in Iran as a tool of political repression, including the imminent execution of Ehsani and Hassani and the inhumane treatment of Sabet;

Urges the Iranian authorities to halt any plans to execute Ehsani and Hassani and to release them, given the severe due process violations and their arbitrary detention;

Calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Mahvash Sabet and all others imprisoned solely for exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms;

Calls for the immediate release of all EU hostages including Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris;

Demands that all political prisoners of conscience be granted immediate access to legal counsel, family contact, and adequate medical care, and that allegations of torture be independently investigated;

Reiterates its call for a moratorium on all executions in Iran as a step toward abolition of the death penalty and urges reforms to bring Iran’s penal code in line with international human rights standards;

Calls on the Council and Member States to make releasing political prisoners and EU nationals, and the abolition of death sentences a condition for improving relations with Iran, and until then to designate the IRCG a terrorist organisation and to expand targeted sanctions against responsible Iranian officials, including supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi-Azad and Judge Iman Afshari;

Urges the UN HRC to monitor Iran’s use of the death penalty and to investigate these cases as part of broader accountability efforts;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the VP/HR, and the Iranian government.