[ad_1]
Following criticism of the execution of the Iranian fighter Navid Afkari, the German ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. The federal government confirmed its position in a statement.
The German ambassador to the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran has been subpoenaed before the Iranian Foreign Ministry for his public criticism of the hasty execution of fighter Navid Afkari. The ministry “condemned the criticisms posted on Twitter in the strongest possible way” and let Ambassador Hans-Udo Muzel know that it viewed it as “interference in the internal affairs” of Iran, the ministry said in a statement.
The 27-year-old Afkari fighter was hastily executed last Saturday despite international solidarity campaigns. He is said to have stabbed an official at a demonstration in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz in August 2018. The fighter had confessed to the crime on television, but human rights organizations said the confession was obtained under torture.
According to Afkari’s lawyer, Hassan Junessi, the young fighter was executed the day before a planned meeting with the family of the deceased, in which the family would be forgiven. Under Iranian law, if they relented, the execution of the death penalty would have ceased to be valid. Therefore, Afkari’s own family was not informed of the imminent execution, although criminal law would have allowed her one last meeting with him.
Execution condemned internationally
The German embassy in Tehran later expressed “deeply shocked” by Afkari’s death on its official Twitter account on Sunday. It is unacceptable that “fundamental rights are violated to silence the voices of the opposition,” she said in Farsi. At the same time, she called for solidarity with Afkari’s two brothers, who had been sentenced to long prison terms.
The federal government has now backed Ambassador Muzel and strongly condemned the execution of Afkaris. “We are dismayed that the death penalty against athlete Navid Afkari was carried out in Iran last Saturday,” said a spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry. “The German government strongly condemns this execution, which was carried out despite international protests and requests for a stay.” There were significant doubts about the rule of law of the procedure, the spokeswoman said.
The EU rejects the death penalty “under any circumstances”
Allegations that Afkari only made a confession through torture were taken very seriously. Therefore, the federal government has campaigned for the suspension of the death penalty against Afkari. “Meanwhile, the condemnation and execution of executions in Iran have reached a level of arbitrariness where the Iranian regime appears to be unavailable for foreign appeals,” said Gyde Jensen, chair of the Bundestag’s human rights committee.
The EU made a similar statement. “The European Union rejects the death penalty in all circumstances and without exception,” said a spokesman for the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. It is a cruel punishment that denies human dignity and inviolability in an unacceptable way.
