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Justice: Berlin reacts sharply to further executions in Iran

Justice: Berlin reacts sharply to further executions in Iran

Iran continues to carry out the death penalty against people who took to the streets against the regime. The federal government sharply condemns this and calls for an end to the executions.

The German government has reacted sharply to the execution of two other demonstrators in Iran. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called on the regime in Tehran via Twitter to stop carrying out death sentences “and to release those who were unjustly imprisoned immediately”. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Federal Foreign Office again. She also announced further EU sanctions.

The ambassador should be made unmistakably clear “that the brutal repression, the suppression and the terrorization of our own population as well as the two most recent executions will not go unnoticed,” said Baerbock in Berlin. At the same time, she emphasized: “A regime that murders its own youth to intimidate its population has no future.”

France, Denmark and Norway also summoned the Iranian ambassadors to their countries. Baerbock’s French counterpart Catherine Colonna called the executions “outrageous”. The European Union also responded by summoning the Iranian ambassador to the EU. The EU’s foreign service said the EU and its member states remained united in their response to Tehran’s actions.

Scholz: “It’s terrible”

Two more protesters were executed in Iran on Saturday. As the Iranian judiciary announced, the two men Mohammed-Mehdi K. and Sejed-Mohammed H. were hanged. The judiciary accused them of being responsible for the death of a security officer during anti-system protests in November.

“With the executions (…), the Iranian regime relies on the death penalty as a means of oppression. That is appalling,” wrote Scholz on Twitter.

Baerbock emphasized: “As the European Union, our clear reaction is to continue to increase the pressure – especially on the Revolutionary Guards.” Baerbock dismissed criticism that Germany and the EU were not doing enough because they did not classify the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. These are Iran’s militarily highly armed elite unit with great economic and political influence.

Baerbock: “Build pressure on the regime”

The Foreign Minister pointed out that the Revolutionary Guards have been listed and penalized by the EU since 2010 as part of the weapons of mass destruction sanctions. In addition, dozens of their leaders have been individually listed under the human rights sanctions system in recent months. Only this means that the person concerned can no longer enter the EU, park money here “or simply go shopping here”.

In this way you can meet each person in a targeted and individual way. “It’s more laborious, but ultimately more effective,” stressed the Foreign Minister. These sanctions would be expanded. At the next EU Council of Foreign Ministers, further high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guards would be added to the list. This sanction system was created precisely to “put pressure on a regime that is terrorizing its own population,” explained Baerbock.

Source: Stern

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