Iran sets “a cruel example”

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reacted in no uncertain terms to the execution of a participant in the mass protests against Iran’s leadership that have been going on for months. The fact that Tehran is setting a “cruel example” with this “perfidious summary procedure” and the death sentence against Mohsen Shekari underscores the “boundless contempt for human beings” of this regime, Baerbock explained.

The Foreign Office in Berlin summoned the Iranian ambassador to Germany. This is considered a harsh diplomatic response.

The European Union was also outraged. The execution is condemned in the strongest possible terms, said a spokesman for the foreign service in Brussels. The EU urges the Iranian government to renounce the imposition and any further execution of the death penalty.

Independent special rapporteurs from the United Nations, human rights activists and other experts spoke of an “unfair sham trial”. They stressed that the punishment was not justified.

“Warfare Against God”

The Islamic Revolutionary Court convicted Shekari of “waging war against God” and had him hanged on Thursday morning. According to state media, the 23-year-old took part in a roadblock in Tehran and attacked a member of a paramilitary militia with a machete. Shekari is the first protester to be executed since anti-mullah regime protests began. Twelve other people are on death row for the same reasons.

The well-known Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi, who was recently released from prison, wrote to the political leadership on Twitter: “The execution of any protester will have serious consequences for you.” Taking one person’s life is “like taking the life of all of us. Can you set up the gallows for all of us?”

The trigger for the nationwide demonstrations was the death of the Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini. She died in police custody in mid-September after being arrested by the Morality Police for breaking Islamic dress codes. Critics of the regime are convinced that the young woman was mistreated.

wa/ack (dpa, afp, kna)