Campaign

Press Release

February 18, 2022

German Appeal to Free Iran's Political Prisoners Now Circulating

Endorsed by Relatives, Nobel Laureates, Voices of Conscience

JCPOA Talks Continue, Appeal Demands: Iran: Free All Political Prisoners Now; US: No Intervention, No War

February 18, 2022

Contact: Larry Everest (202) 935-1652
FreeIransPoliticalPrisonersNow.org | Twitter @IranPrisonEmerg

Interviews available with Mariam Claren

DM: #FreeNahid | Twitter: @Mariam_Claren

The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance – We Must ACT NOW!. This Emergency Appeal from the International Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now has now been translated into German and is circulating in Germany for signatures and possible publication.

“Given the German government’s ties with the Islamic Republic, its professed concern for human rights, and the tens of thousands of Iranian exiles, refugees, and immigrants living in Germany, it’s urgent that the German government, German organizations, and German society forcefully condemn Iran’s treatment of its political prisoners and demand their immediate release,” states Mariam Claren, the daughter of German-Iranian citizen Nahid Taghavi, imprisoned in Iran since October 2020.

The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance – We Must ACT NOW!. This Emergency Appeal from the International Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now has now been translated into German and is circulating in Germany for signatures and possible publication.

“Given the German government’s ties with the Islamic Republic, its professed concern for human rights, and the tens of thousands of Iranian exiles, refugees, and immigrants living in Germany, it’s urgent that the German government, German organizations, and German society forcefully condemn Iran’s treatment of its political prisoners and demand their immediate release,” states Mariam Claren, the daughter of German-Iranian citizen Nahid Taghavi, imprisoned in Iran since October 2020.

“Circulating and working to publish this Emergency Appeal in Germany is an important way to put this urgent issue before the public and galvanize support for these courageous prisoners, whose only ‘crime’ was caring about others and daring to speak out,” Claren says. She launched the #FreeNahid campaign to win her mother’s release and supports freedom for all Iran’s political prisoners, including imprisoned dual-nationals.

The Appeal, launched last year in the U.S., states a “brutal campaign of arrests, torture and executions is now taking place in Iran,” warns “The lives and dignity of hundreds of political prisoners are in imminent, mortal danger,” and calls on “All those who stand for justice and yearn for a better world must rally to the cause of freeing Iran’s political prisoners NOW.”

Significantly and uniquely, especially in light of the JPCOA talks, the Appeal demands Iran free its political prisoners and the U.S. refrain from threatening or intervening in Iran, including by lifting sanctions.

This Appeal has been endorsed by well over 3,000 people from 40 countries, including Germany. Signers include former Iranian political prisoners, relatives of current prisoners, the Burn the Cage/Free the Birds movement, and prominent voices of conscience including Shirin Ebadi, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem, Ariel Dorfman, Jody Williams, Daniel Ellsberg, Judith Butler, and Raymond Lotta, It appeared as an ad on the back cover of the Summer 2021 issue of The New York Review of Books and has been translated into Farsi, Turkish, French, Spanish, and now German.

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