A member of Germany’s federal parliament has taken on the political sponsorship of Kurdish political prisoner Zeynab Jalalian, who is entering her nineteenth year of imprisonment in Iran.
Cansu Özdemir, a The Left party representative in the Bundestag, announced on her social media accounts today that she had taken on Jalalian’s case, pledging to continue raising awareness of it internationally.
Jalalian, born in 1982 in the village of Dim Qeshlaq in Maku, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested in Kermanshah in March 2008 by Ministry of Intelligence forces.
She was initially sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court, but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
During her time in prison, Jalalian has been denied the right to temporary leave. Despite suffering from several illnesses, she has also been denied adequate medical care and has been transferred unlawfully to different prisons across the country on several occasions. She is currently held in Yazd Prison.
Jalalian is regarded as the longest-held female political prisoner in Iran and the only woman currently serving a life sentence on political charges.
In a statement published on social media, Özdemir stressed that Jalalian’s case should not be forgotten at the international level.
“For years, human rights organisations have reported severe mistreatment and Zeynab Jalalian’s lack of access to medical care. Her case is a clear example of the repression of political opponents and ethnic minorities in Iran, particularly Kurdish activists,” she wrote.
Referring to a parliamentary programme through which lawmakers support political prisoners, the German MP said: “As members of the Bundestag, we work to support at-risk human rights defenders and political prisoners around the world. As Zeynab Jalalian’s political sponsor and supporter, I will work to ensure that her case continues to be raised internationally. Political prisoners must not be forgotten. Human rights are not negotiable.”
