European Parliamentary Delegation Visit to Iran Cancelled

Iran Human Rights: According to official reports from Iran and Europe, the European Parliamentary delegation’s visit to Tehran that was scheduled to start tomorrow has been cancelled.

According to Reuters the decision came after senior officials at the parliament, which on Friday awarded its Sakharov prize for human rights and freedom of thought to human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and filmmaker Jafar Panahi, said they wanted the delegation to meet the two activists.

"After hearing the new conditions, the Iranians decided to cancel," European Parliament spokeswoman Satu Helin told Reuters. The delegation was set to travel to Tehran from October 27 to November 2.

Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted an Iranian parliamentary official as saying the European delegation had stated as a "precondition" a visit with Sotoudeh and Panahi.

Earlier this week Iran Human Rights (IHR) and urged the European Parliament to cancel their Tehran visit in protest to the executionof Saeed Sedighi and nine other prisoners in Tehran Monday October 22.

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2012 went to Iranians Nasrin Sotoudeh, an imprisoned human rights defender and lawyer, and Jafar Panahi, a film director who with his work called attention to the hardships suffered by Iran’s poor. EP president Martin Schulz made the announcement in plenary on Friday 26 October.

"The award … is a message of solidarity and recognition to a woman and a man who have not been bowed by fear and intimidation and who have decided to put the fate of their country before their own," said Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament.

IHR has welcomed the Sakharov Prize being awarded to Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi.