Germany summons Iran ambassador over protest crackdown

"We call on the Iranian authorities to allow peaceful protests."
Demonstrators hold up images of Amini (Photo: AFP).
Demonstrators hold up images of Amini (Photo: AFP).

Germany on Monday urged Iran to stop using violence to quell protests driven by the death of a young woman in police custody and summoned the country's ambassador over the unrest.

"We call on the Iranian authorities to allow peaceful protests and not to use further -- and certainly not lethal -- violence against demonstrators," the foreign ministry said on Twitter.

"We have also communicated this directly to the Iranian ambassador in Berlin today," it added, after announcing that it had summoned the envoy earlier in the day.

Iran has arrested more than 1,200 protesters in its lethal crackdown on 10 nights of unrest driven by outrage over the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

At least 41 people have been killed in the nationwide demonstrations.

Amini died in the custody of Iran's notorious morality police following her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran's strict rules on hijab headscarves and modest clothing.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock last week condemned the "brutal attack" on Iranians protesting in the wake of Amini's death.

"We are on the side of the courageous women in Iran," Baerbock told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. "The brutal attack on the courageous women in Iran is also an attack on humanity."

Baerbock said Germany would ask the UN Human Rights Council to address the repression as a violation "of women's rights and thus human rights".