(9 Jan 2023) ASSOCIATED PRESS
1. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her counterpart from Cyprus Ioannis Kasoulides arriving
2. Flags
3. SOUNDBITE (German) Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister:
"The storming of the buildings of all three democratic powers in Brasilia was a cowardly and violent attack on the heart of Brazilian democracy, which we condemn in the strongest terms. No matter where in the world democracies are attacked, this is always an attack on our freedom and on our values. Therefore, all our solidarity goes to the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions in Brazil, who have elected a new government in free and fair elections. And it is to this government that we stand in solidarity by the side of Brazilian President Lula da Silva. As democrats, we stand firmly together."
4. Camera
5. Baerbock and Kasoulides
6. SOUNDBITE (German) Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister:
"Furthermore, regardless of the legal system under which sanctions and listing occur, I have today instructed that the Iranian Ambassador be reassigned to the State Department to make it unmistakably clear that the brutal repression, oppression, and terrorization of its own people, as well as the recent two executions, will not be without consequences."
7. Cameras
8. Mid of Baerbock
9. Baerbock and Kasoulides
STORYLINE:
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has condemned the violence in Brasilia, calling the storming of Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace on Sunday "a cowardly and violent attack on the heart of Brazilian democracy, which we condemn in the strongest terms."
Brazilian authorities vowed Monday to protect democracy and punish thousands of supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed and trashed the nation’s highest seats of power in chaos with striking similarities to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
"Our solidarity goes to the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions in Brazil, who have elected a new government in free and fair elections," Baerbock said in Berlin.
"It is to this government that we stand in solidarity by the side of Brazilian President Lula da Silva."
On the issue of Iran, Baerbock said she had instructed that the Iranian Ambassador be reassigned to the State Department "to make it unmistakably clear that the brutal repression, oppression, and terrorization of its own people, as well as the recent two executions, will not be without consequences."
Anti-government protests erupted across Iran in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the country's morality police for allegedly violating its strict Islamic dress code.
The unrest has grown into one of the severest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power.
Human rights groups say that at least 517 protesters have been killed and over 19,200 people have been arrested amid a violent crackdown by security forces. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.
On Saturday, authorities executed two men convicted of allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer in the demonstrations.
The Saturday hangings brought to four the number of people known to have been executed since the unrest began in September over the death of Amini.
All of the sentences were handed out in rapid, closed-door trials that have been met with international criticism.
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