Hamburg MP Cansu Özdemir condemned Tehran's treatment of political prisoner Zeynab Jalalian and called for her immediate release. “It cannot be the case that the Islamist regime in Iran wants to force Zeynab Jalalian to confess so that she can receive the necessary medical care,” said the co-chair of the Left Party in the Hamburg parliament on Monday. “This is another human rights violation,” she added.

Over the weekend it became known that Zeynab Jalalian was being mistreated while being interrogated by officials from the Iranian Ministry of Health who wanted to force her to confess on camera to give her medical care. In a broadcast on state television, the Kurdish woman was supposed to "confess" her wrongdoings and express remorse for her previous political activities and agree to cooperate with the mullahs' regime. Only then would the Ministry of Intelligence be prepared to provide the 41-year-old with the necessary medical care.

Jalalian rejected the claims. “I have nothing to regret,” the political prisoner is said to have told Iranian regime interrogators despite the psychological pressure and physical abuse she was subjected to. It was not the first time that the regime in Jalalian's case conditioned access to adequate medical care on an on-camera “confession.” The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence also repeatedly made the transfer to a prison closer to Jalalian's family's home and an end to the repression against her and her relatives dependent on a confession.