UK condemns Iran's execution of 2 'protesters'

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The UK on Saturday condemned the execution of two Iranian men, calling on Iran to halt all executions "immediately."

Mohammad Mahdi Karami, 22, and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, were executed early Saturday in Tehran in a case related to the killing of a paramilitary Basiji trooper in late November.

In a statement, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the execution is abhorrent, calling on Iran to "immediately halt" all executions and end the "violence" against its own people.

"The UK is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and the Iranian regime has done further lasting damage to its reputation at home and overseas with yet another disproportionate response to the Iranian people protesting legitimately against their oppression," he noted.

The execution of Karami and Hosseini took the total number of executions to four amid months-long protests sparked by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of police in mid-September.

Meanwhile, a top Iranian Sunni cleric from the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, on Friday urged the authorities to halt the death verdicts.