Sponsorships for Iranians: “Create awareness for injustice”

More than 200 politicians want to help political prisoners in Iran with so-called sponsorships. SPD politician Mansoori explains what that can bring tagesschau.deinterview and refers to initial successes.

tagesschau.de: More than 230 politicians from the Bundestag, state parliaments and European Parliament have taken on political sponsorships for imprisoned people in Iran and those threatened with the death penalty. What exactly is behind the sponsorships for the prisoners?

Kaweh Mansoori: Basically, it’s about creating awareness for concrete fates, because this means that the protest is no longer anonymous. These are very specific people, with very specific experiences and biographies that are at stake and with whom you can then identify.

In my case, Farzaneh Ghareh Hassanlou and her husband Dr. Hamid Ghareh Hassanlou. When I tell you that, I also sense that there is a completely different form of concern, because it is much easier to imagine who is affected by all this state repression.

The sponsorships also draw international attention to the injustice that the regime is doing to people and for which it suddenly has to justify itself. So the letters that we send to the embassy, ​​the reports about it in the media, all of that helps to put the Iranian regime under pressure to justify themselves. And above all, of course, it drives up the price for all these little court cases that they’re running.

The Iranian regime also knows they must at least try to maintain some semblance of the rule of law. And the more we build up pressure through these sponsorships, the more difficult it becomes for them in view of 20,000 political prisoners. There have already been cases where sentences have been overturned, where people have at least been released on bail, or where executions have been suspended.

tagesschau.de: How exactly does such a sponsorship work?

Mansoori: The first, of course, is the so-called matching. You will then receive a small file with the basic information about the case. Basically, everyone gets a sample letter addressed to the ambassador. After that, each case becomes relatively individual. I always recommend all sponsors to try to establish contact with relatives and family members as quickly as possible in order to receive regular updates.

“There was a serious botch in the process”

tagesschau.de: How successful would such a sponsorship be from your point of view? Release, reduced imprisonment or, first of all, a suspension of the execution of the death penalty?

Mansoori: In the case of my godparents, the judgments have been overturned. The two were accused of involvement in the killing of a Basij militia officer. But they were not allowed to freely choose a lawyer in the proceedings. A defense witness was not heard. He could even have stated that not only were they not involved in the killing, but on the contrary they even provided first aid on the spot. There was a serious botch in the process and in the end the verdict was based solely on a self-incriminating confession that was extorted.

Of course, this is not at all tenable under the rule of law. That’s why we put on so much pressure. And in the end even the Iranian regime, which is otherwise not interested in the principles of the rule of law, had to capitulate to this pressure and initially have the verdicts overturned.

tagesschau.de: Let’s look at a rather critical aspect of these sponsorships. The pressure that is being built up online is remarkable. Isn’t there still a risk that it will then “get stuck” on the social media platforms and silt up in the long term?

Mansoori: I think the pressure and the attention are helpful at first. But the whole thing has to be accompanied politically and that’s why the members of parliament who take on such sponsorships don’t just leave it at the sponsorships themselves, but, we regularly have the topic of Iran in the German Bundestag. Here, too, concrete progress is being made. For example, my group decided last week that we want to close the German-Iranian parliamentary group, also as a signal to the outside world that under these circumstances we are not prepared at all to hold a formal exchange with Iranian representatives. I would never want to reduce these sponsorships to pure symbolism. I think they are an active contributor here in Europe, where many people don’t know what’s really going on in Iran.

Mansoori calls for tougher measures

tagesschau.de: Let’s look at the current situation. Just last weekend there was another execution, this time of the British-Iranian politician Akbari. This was followed by an outcry, international outrage, and ambassadors were summoned. Do such diplomatic notes of protest bring anything? Critics demand far more.

Mansoori: I am a supporter of tougher measures. Of course, we have to differentiate which measures are aimed at whom. The experience of the last few years shows that the sanctioning of commercial transactions has hit the civilian population in particular. The regime is now also able to circumvent almost any economic sanction that is imposed relatively easily via foreign exchange. The people of Iran are paying the price. When I call for tougher sanctions, I mean above all personal sanctions.

A specific demand would be to include the 227 MPs who voted in favor of the execution of the political prisoners on the sanctions list. The second would be the terrorist listing of the Revolutionary Guard Army. Thirdly, this must include putting our authorities in a position to actually identify these illegal assets, so that these sanctions regimes are not paper tigers, but so that they are enforced.

Another important point, in my view, is humanitarian visas. Why? For a democratic revolution in Iran, we also need a democratic opposition that cannot really organize itself and appear publicly in Iran. This can actually only work if we give intellectuals, artists and cultural workers the opportunity to get stages and attention abroad and to promote their goals.

As someone who also has roots in Iran, that totally impresses me. That in such a heterogeneous country people with different languages, cultural backgrounds, ethnic affiliations come together and put the common cause in the foreground. And I think if they can do it, we must be able to do it too.

No normal relationships imaginable

tagesschau.de: How do you rate the report by the German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce that Germany is still Iran’s most important trading partner in Europe? Isn’t that paradoxical, to say the least?

Mansoori: Yes that’s it. But you have to look at the absolute numbers. Within Europe, this gives the impression that we are talking about large trading volumes. In absolute numbers, of course, that’s negligible compared to Iran’s other trading partners. Nevertheless, the impression must not arise that we shy away from certain measures because we have an economic interest. At the same time, I would also be in the interests of the people of Iran for a differentiated view. If we practiced a total trade embargo on Iran, it would hit civilians hardest. I am ready for us to discuss such a step, but we also have to be clear about the consequences.

tagesschau.de: Among other things, many are calling on the European Parliament to put the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the EU terror list. What would be the consequences of such a step?

Mansoori: In the end, that would above all send an effective signal to Iran that tough sanctions are being introduced. There has also been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the formal requirements for such a terrorist listing at EU level. The requirements are all justifiable if you want to make this decision. My impression is that some EU member states did not want to make this decision in order to keep a door open for possible further negotiations with Iran. I think it is completely out of the question for us to enter into normal relations with a country where 20,000 political prisoners are at risk of execution. And that’s why it sends a strong signal when the European Parliament says by a large majority that they want this listing.

The conversation was led by Katja Keppner, tagesschau.de