PRESS RELEASE : Foreign Secretary summons Iranian diplomat following executions [January 2023]
The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 9 January 2023.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has summoned Iran’s most senior diplomat after the regime executed two more protestors.
Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini were executed by the Iranian authorities over the weekend, prompting widespread international condemnation. The UN responded to the executions by saying they followed ‘unfair trials based on forced confessions’.
The UK has repeatedly called on the regime to end the use of the death penalty, both publicly and directly with Iranian officials.
Foreign Secretary 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.
The Iranian regime must end its campaign of brutal repression and start listening to the concerns of its people.
Stephen Hickey, Director Middle East and North Africa at the FCDO, held the meeting with Mehdi Hosseini Matin and underlined the UK’s opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini, the UK has imposed more than 40 human rights sanctions including on leading political, judicial and security officials in Iran, for their role in serious human rights violations.
