Britain Condemns Hanging Of Two Iranian Protesters
The United Kingdom has slammed Iran's execution of two protesters Saturday and urged the regime to "immediately end the violence against its own people".
The United Kingdom has slammed Iran's execution of two protesters Saturday and urged the regime to "immediately end the violence against its own people".
The country’s Foreign Minister James Cleverly in a tweet said, "The execution of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini by the Iranian regime is abhorrent."
"The UK is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances," he added.
Iran hanged the two men for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests that were triggered following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in September.
The convictions were not based on a criminal charge related to the murder per se, but they were charged with ‘moharebeh’, meaning “war against God”, a vague religious concept. The Islamic Republic applies the charge to people who might get into a confrontation with security forces during protests.
Despite widespread international attempts to stop the executions, the regime decided to implement the verdict reached in November. Officials say death sentences for three others in the same case have been canceled.
So far, the government has executed four protesters and nearly a dozen others have received the death penalty, some for much less charges than murder, while at least 100 protesters face charges that could end in death sentences for them, an Iranian human rights group based in Oslo has reported.
Dozens of prisoners are either on hunger strike or suffer from life-threatening illnesses that are not treated by prison authorities and some are deprived of life-saving medications.
The European Union in a statement Saturday condemned the execution of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini in Iran and called the executions “yet another sign of the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of civilian demonstrations” and urged Iranian government to “strictly abide by their obligations enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” to which Iran is a party.
“The European Union calls once again on the Iranian authorities to immediately end the strongly condemnable practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters,” the EU said and called on Tehran to “annul without delay the recent death penalty sentences that were already pronounced in the context of the ongoing protests and to provide due process to all detainees.”
Condemning the executions and calling them “abhorrent”, British foreign minister James Cleverly urged the Islamic Republic to "immediately end the violence against its own people". "The UK is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances," Cleverly said.
US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley tweeted, “Appalled by the regime’s execution of two more young Iranians after sham trials. These executions must stop. We and others across the globe will continue to hold Iran’s leadership accountable.”
French senators have tabled a resolution calling on the EU for ending nuclear negotiations with Iran and designating the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
“Over 40 senators have supported the motion that requires the European Union to end the talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, and shut down Iranian banks in the EU countries and close its airspace to Iranian flights for fundamental human rights violations,” Senator Nathalie Goulet who proposed the motion with her colleagues in the upper house of the French Parliament told Iran International.
The European affairs committee of the Senate will be working on this resolution over the next ten days, she added.
The resolution calls on the Government and the European Union to “consolidate and extend the limitation of access to the primary and secondary capital markets of the Union for Iranian banks, including those established on the territory of the European Union.”
It also calls on the European Union to expel students in the EU who have a family link with Iranian officials on the list of Persons Subject to Restrictive Measures for Serious Human Rights Violations in Iran.
Other European lawmakers, some of whom have accepted the political sponsorship of some of several detained Iranian protesters including those with a death penalty hanging over their heads strongly condemned Saturday’s hangings of, Karami and Hosseini, urging their governments to adopt restrictive measures against Iran for its violation of human rights.
Helge Limburg, the German lawmaker who accepted Karami’s political sponsorship in a tweet said he could not express his deep “sadness and rage” over his execution while French lawmaker Clementine Autain who also sponsored Karami in a tweet strongly criticized the French President Emanuel Macron for his “silence vis-à-vis the [Islamic Republic] regime.”
Norbert Röttgen, member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in a tweet after the executions said Germany and the EU must “finally start taking decisive action to protect the 19k other prisoners” while another German MP, Hannah Neumann, in a tweet said the regime “will not stop with more talks and red carpets”. “We need to send a clear signal and treat them as what they are: terrorists,” she added.
Trudeau made the comments in a meeting with family members of victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 that was shot down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on January 8, 2020.
Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport and Ralph Goodale, High Commissioner in the United Kingdom were also present in the meeting which was held on the anniversary of the tragic event.
A statement published by Global Affairs Friday said, “Canada honors the victims of Flight PS752 and all air disasters and continues to stand in solidarity with their families and loved ones.”
“Canada and its partners in the Coordination Group—Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom—continue to work together to hold Iran accountable for the downing of Flight PS752 and ensure full reparations are made for the deaths of 176 innocent people,” reads the statement.
On December 28, 2022, the Coordination Group of countries affected by the tragic incident announced an important step in the pursuit of accountability in accordance with international law. Members of the group Britain, Canada, Sweden, and Ukraine urged Iran to agree to arbitration as Tehran has stonewalled over an independent investigation and proper compensation.
The airliner was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the IRGC as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Hours earlier, the IRGC had fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation for the killing of the IRGC Quds Force Commander Ghasem Soleimani who was targeted by a US drone strike just five days earlier.
All 176 passengers and crew, including 63 Canadians and 10 from Sweden, as well as 82 Iranian citizens on the plane died in the disaster.
Iranian activist groups have called for large rallies both in Iran and abroad on Sunday, January 8 to mark the third anniversary of the incident, coupled with ongoing antigovernment protests.
The execution of two more protesters in Iran on Saturday may add to the intensity of the gatherings on Sunday.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported January 6 that Ottawa is weighing the options regarding claims that Iran’s envoy to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Farhad Parvaresh might have had involvements with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Parvaresh is currently based in Canada and some are demanding that the federal government impose restrictions on his movements.
Parvaresh was the head of government airline, Iran Air during the years when the company’s aircraft were used to transport weapons to Syria, a task organized and controlled by IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds (Qods) Force.
In a confidential audio recording obtained by Iran International in April 2021, former foreign minister Javad Zarif told an Iranian journalist that Iran Air was extensively used to ferry weapons to Damascus. The authenticity of the long audio recording was not disputed. Zarif’s reference was to early and mid-2010s, when Parvaresh headed Iran Air.
