Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and film director Jafar Panahi from Iran won the Parliament's Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2012. This is their story.

Close to you: 2012 Sakharov Prize winners

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16160879/m005-0029-enxx.srt

12 June 2009. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  was re-elected for four years

as President of  the Islamic Republic of Iran.

to condemn a clearly fraudulent election.  The repression was bloody.

In the following months, arbitrary arrests  in all parts of society multiplied.

and film director Jafar Panahi  were arrested and sentenced.

The European Parliament  paid tribute to them this year

by awarding them the Sakharov Prize  for Freedom of Thought.

I think Iran is a country  where things happen on the ground

to do with human rights and the death  penalty, a series of regular violations.

It's also a country in a very strategic  location in relation to events in Syria.

The position of the Iranian regime  in relation to Syria

is the opposite  to that of the European Union.

Karim Lahidji has for 30 years continued  his fight for human rights in Iran.

My career path was identical  to that of Nasrin Sotoudeh.

A lawyer, a lawyer for political prisoners.

I learnt in 1981 that an arrest warrant  had been issued against me.

And I was forced to leave the country  secretly via Turkey.

In this context, Nasrin,  as a lawyer for political prisoners,

was arrested and sentenced  to six years in prison

with a ban on practising her profession  as a lawyer.

from time to time, for example,  they cut off her weekly visits.

Last July her husband  and her 12-year-old daughter

With this kind of pressure,  even if it's symbolic,

they are in fact trying to break  the will and resistance of Nasrin.

And against this policy  of secondary repression,

she has started her fourth hunger strike.

An Iranian lawyer in exile  and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2003,

Shirin Ebadi confirms that  her state of health is very serious.

Nasrin Sotoudeh has been  on hunger strike for more than 40 days.

Her situation is critical and we're worried  her life may be in danger.

The story doesn't end there. The regime's  repression is felt even in artistic circles.

After being banned from going  to the Cannes Film Festival in 2010,

Jafar Panahi, an internationally  recognised director,

was sentenced to six years in prison  with a 20-year ban on his profession.

The regime hasn't forgiven him  for his part in the post-election protests.

His free film-making scares them,  and yet...

Jafar Panahi isn't a political film-maker.

He's a film-maker... How can I put it?  He takes a moral viewpoint,

he has an ethical way of looking at,  of perceiving,

the reality in his country.  He's deeply Iranian.

He's not a film-maker  who wants to point the finger, to attack.

He's someone with a very strong  metaphorical capacity.

Under house arrest,  in spite of the ban,

Panahi delivered on a USB flash drive  smuggled out of Iran,

a new film which he called  'This is not a film'.

And the Cannes Film Festival decided  to screen it officially in 2011 at Cannes

who is constrained, impeded,  prevented, censored...

It's the story of a director  reduced to reading his scripts

and imagining the locations  in his living room.

A film is never what you say,  it's what you make it.

Recently, the European Parliament's  delegation for EU-Iran relations

was due to go to Tehran  but cancelled the visit

to allow a meeting with Nasrin Sotoudeh  and Jafar Panahi.

But that doesn't mean the work  of the delegation should be suspended.

It's not just about going to Iran  to improve human rights.

Even though they weren't allowed  to go there,

they can regularly report on the subject  in the European Parliament

and give advice  as to what should be done

to improve rights in the Iranian regime.

This opinion is shared by Isabelle Durant.

I think parliamentary diplomacy,  through EU-Iran delegations,

or even in other sensitive regions  of the world,

That is where it has an extra added value,

as long as the delegations realise  that they have a dual mission:

the authorities, but also opponents,  civil society and human rights defenders.