After executions: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock calls for more pressure on Iran

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Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock: "Brutal and inhuman action"

Photo: IMAGO/Kira Hofmann / IMAGO/photothek

After the renewed execution of demonstrators in Iran, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for more pressure from the EU on Tehran.

Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini were hanged by the regime "because they didn't want to submit to the brutal and inhumane actions," the Green politician wrote on Twitter.

These are two "further terrible fates that encourage us to further increase the pressure on Tehran with the EU".

Other federal politicians demanded severe consequences:

• The regime in Tehran is a terror regime and belongs on the EU terror list, wrote the CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen.

  He added: "The Foreign Minister and the Chancellery must finally get this across."

• FDP General Secretary

  Bijan Djir-Sarai

  tweeted: »The crimes of the regime continue (...) When will the EU finally act?

  When will the Revolutionary Guards finally be put on the EU's terror list?"

• Left MP

  Caren Lay

  called Iran a "criminal state" on Twitter.

The EU denounced the renewed executions as "another sign of the violent suppression of the protests".

The Iranian judiciary announced on Saturday that the two men had been hanged in the early hours of the morning.

They are said to have been responsible for the death of a security officer during anti-system protests in November, according to the judiciary.

A total of 14 demonstrators have been sentenced to death in Iran so far in the course of the dissident protests.

Four of them have already been executed, two more death sentences have been upheld by the Supreme Court, six convicts are awaiting retrial and two others can appeal.

The courts do not allow the accused to choose their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them.

Amnesty International has said the trials bear "no resemblance to any meaningful trial".

The protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

The Kurd died in police custody on September 16 under disputed circumstances.

The so-called vice police arrested her because she was said to have been dressed inappropriately.

The protests have since grown into the biggest challenge for the leadership since 1979.

At that time, the Shah was overthrown in the course of the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic was proclaimed.

wit/dpa/AFP