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EU, UK, France and Germany summon Iran envoys over protester executions – JURIST

The European Union, France, Germany and the UK Monday independently summoned Iran’s envoys to their respective countries over Tehran’s severe crackdowns on and executions of anti-government protesters.The EU reiterated to Iran ambassador Hossein Dehghani its “strong appalment” over the January 7 executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini. The two men were arrested and hanged for killing a security forces member during the Mahsa Amini protests. Secretary-general of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Stefan Sannino also reiterated the EU’s outrage to Dehghani. He echoed the EU’s call to Iran’s authorities to immediately annul the death sentences against any other protestors.German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at a news conference in Berlin:Today, I ordered the Iranian ambassador to be summoned to the Foreign Office again to make it absolutely clear that the brutal repression, the oppression and the terrorization of the country’s own people, as well as the recent executions, will not go unnoticed.Baerbock asserted that there is no future for a regime that goes on to murder their own youth and vowed to increase pressure on Iran by imposing EU’s human rights sanctions against individual high-ranking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).British Foreign Minister James Cleverly and the French foreign ministry summoned Iran’s envoys to their respective countries to “condemn, in the strongest possible terms” the executions conducted over the weekend. Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022, Britain has imposed more than 40 sanctions on top Iranian authorities “for their role in serious human rights violations.” The French ministry has also voiced their condemnation to these authorities several times.Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard were executed in December after being found guilty of separate attacks on security personnel. The latest executions bring the number of protesters officially known to have been executed to four.