For the attention of:
Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council
Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament
In 2012, between 541 and 580 people were executed in Iran. It is again the country with the highest number of executions in the world per capita and a dramatic increase of public executions since 2009.
Approximately two-thirds of the executions in 2012 were for crimes tied to drug-related charges. Many of these trials take place on the basis of coerced confessions, behind closed doors of revolutionary courts, frequently without a lawyer to defend the accused who are not allowed to appeal their death sentences.
The fight against drug trafficking in Iran is partly supported by European Union member countries funding through the UN Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The amount and detailed allocation of these contributions remain opaque and unknown to the European citizens. Thus, through their governments, the European citizens finance programs that lead to a net increase of executions in Iran.
The European Union, with strong abolitionist beliefs, cannot remain indifferent to this situation. We, the undersigned of this petition, ask the European Union to honor its Nobel Peace Prize and act immediately and efficiently to alert its Member States.
We demand that the European Union and its leaders claim from its Member States that they impose, as a condition of their contribution to international programs to fight against drug trafficking in Iran :
- the immediate implementation of a moratorium on death sentences related to drug-related charges by the Iranian authorities.
- the publication of the amount and allocation of their contributions,
- the full allocation of these contributions to prevention programs and not repression in Iran,
Let’s work together for a fair criminal justice system in Iran!