By Pishtaz | 2025-02-07

In a forceful resolution adopted January 23, the European Parliament (EP) denounced the Iranian regime's "unrestrained repression of human rights and persecution of minorities" and condemned its "hostage diplomacy."

The European Union's lawmaking body also expressed its "strong opposition to the death penalty in Iran," requesting an immediate moratorium on its use and eventually its abolition.

And it again called on the European Council, which defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union, to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

European Union sanctions should extend to all those responsible for human rights violations in Iran, it said, including Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, president Masoud Pezeshkian and judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.

The resolution noted "a sharp rise in executions, including over 900 individuals in 2024 alone" in Iran.

"Many were women, political dissidents and individuals connected to the protests sparked by the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini," it said.

As part of Iran's broader strategy of hostage diplomacy, "dozens of innocent EU nationals have been arbitrarily detained in Iran, without access to fair trials," it added, demanding the "immediate release and safe repatriation of EU citizens."

Among them are French tourist Olivier Grondeau, French teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, and Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali.

Political pawns

The Iranian regime has routinely detained foreign nationals in order to use them as political pawns to further its own aims.

It has been accused of using Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, detained in Tehran's Evin Prison between December 19 and January 8, as leverage for the exchange of a sanctioned Iranian national being held in Italy.

Last year, the Iranian regime freed a Swedish EU official and a Swedish-Iranian dual national in exchange for the release of a former official of the Islamic Republic who had been charged with crimes against humanity.

International bodies, including the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, have documented the IRGC's systematic targeting of foreign and dual nationals.

Arbitrary arrests are followed by incommunicado detention, mistreatment, and trials based on questionable charges in IRGC-controlled courts.

Such trials demonstrate the direct involvement of senior IRGC leadership, operating under Khamenei, per a May 2022 Journal of International Criminal Justice report.

Following the passage of the EP resolution, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on January 27 announced plans to propose EU sanctions against Iranian officials responsible for detaining French citizens in Iran.

The same day, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas warned that the Iranian regime poses an ongoing "threat to international peace."

"Member states made clear that Tehran's practice of detaining foreign nationals for political leverage must end," she said, following an EU Council meeting.