JEDDAH: Pope Francis led a chorus of international condemnation on Monday as Iran sentenced three more people to death for taking part in protests against the regime in Tehran.
Dozens of protesters have been ordered to be executed since demonstrations began in September over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman detained for breaching Iran’s strict dress code.
Four prisoners have been hanged, including two on Saturday, and six of those convicted have been granted retrials. The activist group Iran Human Rights said at least 109 protesters now in detention had been sentenced to death or faced charges that can carry capital punishment.
The pope condemned Iran’s execution of protesters for the first time on Monday in his traditional new year“state of the world” address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.
“The right to life is … threatened in those places where the death penalty continues to be imposed, as is the case in these days in Iran, following the recent demonstrations demanding greater respect for the dignity of women,” Francis said.
“The death penalty cannot be employed for purported state justice, since it does not constitute a deterrent nor render justice to victims, but only fuels the thirst for vengeance.” The pope said
capital punishment was “always inadmissible since it attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person.”
In Europe, Iranian envoys were summoned by foreign ministries in the UK, Germany, France, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands to be told that Iran’s conduct was unacceptable.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Iranian ambassador had been told
“that the brutal repression, the oppression and the terrorizing of its own population as well as the most recent two executions will not remain without consequence.” She said: “A regime that murders its own youth to intimidate its population has no future.”
The French foreign ministry summoned Iran’s envoy “to convey our firmest condemnation of these executions and the current repression in Iran,” it said.
Britain’s Foreign Minister James Cleverly said: “Today I have summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires to condemn in the strongest possible terms the abhorrent executions we witnessed over the weekend.”
An unrepentant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, accused the protesters of treason. “There is no doubt that there are economic and livelihood problems, but can these problems be solved by burning trash cans and rioting in the streets?” he said. “Undoubtedly, these actions are treason, and the responsible institutions deal with treason seriously and justly.”
