The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, yesterday condemned on Monday the “unacceptable” imprisonment of Saleh Nikbakht, the lawyer of the family of Makhsa Amini, after his trip to Strasbourg to receive the Zakharov prize given posthumously to the young Iranian.

“Shortly after his return to Iran, Mr. Nikbakht was arrested and the prize money (including the award) was confiscated. According to our information, he was sentenced to serve a prison sentence because he was accused of indulging in propaganda against the system,” Ms. Metsola emphasized.

“This accusation is false. It’s unacceptable, it’s unforgivable,” he added.

Extolling the “courage” and “commitment” of Saleh Nikbakht, Mrs Metsola demanded, on behalf of the European Parliament, his “immediate and unconditional release”.

On 12 December, the European Parliament posthumously awarded the Zakharov Prize, the European Union’s highest honor for human rights, to Makhsa Amini.

The young Iranian woman, a member of the Kurdish minority, died aged 22 on September 16, 2022, three days after she was arrested by morality police for allegedly violating the strict dress code imposed on women in the Islamic Republic.

The young woman’s family had intended to attend the award ceremony in Strasbourg, but at the last minute the authorities imposed a ban on her leaving the territory.

Judging that there was “no legal basis” to justify this measure, the family’s lawyer, Mr. Nikbakht, explained that he would challenge it once he returned to Tehran. “If they give me time, as soon as I return to Iran I may be arrested and imprisoned,” he told AFP in December.

The lawyer was sentenced in October to serve a year in prison for “propaganda” against the state for speaking to the media about the Makhsa Amini case.