The UK authorities have summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in the country, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, following the execution of Mohsen Shekari, a man who was arrested during protests in the country after the young Mahsa Amini died in custody. police.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has called Shekari’s execution “horrible”. “She is a tragic victim of a legal system that applies disproportionate sentences, politically motivated, and forces confessions,” he said, according to a government statement.
“We have made our position clear to the Iranian authorities: Iran must immediately stop these executions and end the violence against its own people,” he said.
Vijay Rangarajan, director general for the Middle East of the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office, has held a meeting with Hosseini to underline the British vision on the matter and warn that it is a “seriously disproportionate action, designed to intimidate Iranians from a stand up and silence dissenting voices”.
In addition, he has indicated that the United Kingdom opposes the death penalty “in all circumstances” and has urged the Iranian authorities to “stop all executions and stop imposing the death penalty.”
The prisoner in question was convicted of “intentionally” wounding a security guard with a long knife and blocking a street in the capital, according to information from the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Iranian authorities rejected the appeal of his lawyer, considering that it was not “valid or justified” for finding him guilty of “war crimes” by blocking the street, threatening with weapons and confronting the agents.
