EU Speaks Out Against Execution but Stops Short of Condemning Verdict

The European Union has condemned the execution of Navid Afkari, the 27-year-old Shiraz man convicted of murder after being arrested in August 2018. However, the European Union (EU) statement did not refute the Iranian judiciary’s verdict that Afkari was guilty, despite a number of significant inconsistencies and serious flaws in the case and statements from international human rights organizations around the world that he had been coerced or tortured into confessing to the crime. 

The EU External Action Service issued a short statement two days after Navid Afkari's death on September 12. “The European Union condemns this execution in the strongest terms,” the statement read. “Human rights remain a central feature of our engagement with Iran. We will continue to engage with Iranian authorities on this issue including through the local EU representation in Tehran and also on individual cases such as this recent execution. The European Union is opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and cases with no exception. It is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity."

Iran has a long record of conducting flawed and biased trials, and violating prisoners' rights, including subjecting them to physical assault and psychological torture, obtaining confessions under pressure, and blocking defendants from access to public defendants. Afkari was also executed very quickly after his sentencing had been announced, which is rare in the Islamic Republic and other countries that carry out the death penalty. 

Because of this, the execution has been widely seen as one of the most serious human rights catastrophes in recent years.

The EU statement was issued by its spokesperson, not Josep Borrell, the EU Foreign Policy Chief, and said the EU would continue talking with the Islamic Republic about the matter. In other words, it did not deny that Afkari might be guilty. But even so, this was too much for Iranian officials. The state-run media affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards described the statement as interference in internal affairs. Hassan Rouhani's Foreign Ministry has summoned the German ambassador to Tehran, who had described Navid Afkari's fate as "shocking," and the IRGC-affiliated Javan newspaper has demanded the ambassador's expulsion.

The announcement comes as Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif begins a visit to several countries in Europe. The 2020 UN General Assembly also got underway on September 15.

Human Rights: A Priority for the EU? 

Although the EU has been consistent in raising human rights issues in Iran, and it has often referred to human rights in its negotiations, talks about human rights have rarely led to changes in attitudes or policies. For its part, the Islamic Republic regularly criticises other countries’ human rights records. 

In fact, it could be argued that the EU has rarely prioritized human rights in its discussions with Iranian officials, or it has stopped short of setting implementation processes for reform, including punishments such as flogging and amputation, which are allowed under Iranian law. It could be stronger in its demands for Iran to respect the rights of prisoners and, again, set out goals for implementation.

According to key values and principles ​​championed by the European Union, including its objection to the death penalty, the high number of executions in the Islamic Republic has always been of huge importance to discussions between the two sides. Many executions carried out in the Islamic Republic had involved drug traffickers. The Islamic Republic removed the death penalty from anti-drug trafficking laws, except in exceptional cases such as major drug trade, in order to reduce the country’s death penalty statistics.

This reform was a tactical move to reduce the high number of executions in Iran, while the execution of minors found guilty of committing crimes punishable by death continues. In addition, there has been a rise in prisoner deaths while in detention, posing a new concern for human rights advocates, including the EU.  

What’s the JCPOA Got to do With it? 

For some, the European Union has appeared to soften its pressure on Iran to honor its human rights commitments, particularly over the last five years, since Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with China, Russia, the United States (which later withdrew from the deal), the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Several EU countries have given the agreement, also known as the nuclear deal, stringent support and the union has made the deal one of its top priorities when dealing with Iran. 

But since the signing of the JCPOA, new evidence has emerged about the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the assassination of two Iranian dissidents in the Netherlands, and news also emerged that it had helped plan the bombing of gathering of the People’s Mojahidin Party (MEK), an Iranian opposition group, in Paris, a plot that was uncovered before it could be carried out. In addition, two senior Iranian officials spoke out about about rogue Iranian elements in Europe. But in response to all of these revelations and developments, the The EU has mainly imposed symbolic sanctions on Iranian security services and not much else. In many ways, this looks to be an effort to protect the JCPOA, seemingly at almost any cost. The EU has been slow to reassess how it deals with Iran regarding its human rights violations and its violations of international law. 

The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the EU's diplomatic office, combining the functions of the Office of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Defense. The bureau was established two years before nuclear talks began between Iran and the P5+1 group [the permanent members of the UN Security Council, China, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany] but by the time the JCPOA was implemented, it was fully established during Federica Mogherini’s time as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. 

So the established importance and effectiveness of this service was due to the success of the nuclear negotiations and the continued implementation of the JCPOA. The European Union, which could have been stronger in its statements and response to Iran following the execution of Navid Afkari, has chosen to show restraint. It has effectively turned a blind eye to Iran's behavior in order to ensure the Islamic Republic continued its implementation of the nuclear deal, especially after the US withdrawal and the return of sanctions.