There was a large demonstration on Saturday afternoon in front of the city hall. The initiative "FrauenLebenFreiheit - Bonn" (WomenLifeFreedom - Bonn) had called for a protest against the Mullah regime in Iran. According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the execution of Majidreza Rahnavard is "another blatant attempt to intimidate Iranians who want to live in freedom". That is why a third EU sanctions package has been launched.

For Homayoun, spokesperson of "FrauenLebenFreiheit - Bonn", who organised the demonstration, these sanctions do not go far enough. He says all negotiations and cooperation with the Iranian regime must be stopped. Embassies in Europe should be closed because diplomacy is not possible with a terror regime.

"The regime has been acting like this for 43 years," he said, adding that in addition to the alleged crime of "fighting God", "depravity on earth" was also used when passing judgement. He is observing a rapid escalation of violence by the regime. In the past, victims such as the famous wrestler Navid Afkari were tortured for a long period of time, forced to testify and then killed. Now, procedures are accelerated, and people are sentenced and hanged quickly.

He directed strong words at the German government. Germany has a long lever in the form of EU sanctions, but it also has a responsibility to stand by the Iranian people. For many years, it has looked the other way in the face of human rights violations because of economic interests, and it has even supported the Iranian regime by supplying equipment and electronics. Positioning ourselves clearly here is the symbol of a turning point in history," he said.

Lord Mayor Katja Dörner says the protests are about "overcoming a patriarchal, dictatorial, murderous regime", and Bonn and other parts of the world must serve as loudspeakers, broadcasting voices from Iran to the world. She stressed that Bonn would continue to take to the streets against these massive human rights violations, because human rights are firmly anchored in the DNA of the city.

Norbert Röttgen (CDU), a member of the Bundestag and political sponsor of Mostafa Nili, a human rights lawyer imprisoned in Tehran, sees the protests as a "revolution for good. For women, life, freedom." He says the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are the embodiment of terror and it "should finally be put on the EU terror list." It is about being on the right side of history. This also means that machines and electronics should not be supplied to Iran.

The "Pax Europa" association, which is classified as right-wing populist, staged a rally lasting several hours in Bonn's city centre on Saturday afternoon. The association propagates the "preservation of Christian-Jewish culture in Germany and Europe" and calls for a fight against what it calls the "creeping Islamisation of Europe".

During the event, one of the initiators was physically attacked by a 20-year-old passer-by. According to Bonn police spokesperson Robert Scholten, he was not badly injured. The attacker was overpowered by the police who were on standby and was charged with assault.

Around 7.40 p.m. on Friday evening, two men who are still unidentified threatened a cashier at a petrol station in Bonn-Duisdorf with a firearm. According to police, the alleged perpetrators wore black balaclavas to conceal their faces.

The police said that one of the two masked men pointed a firearm at the cashier after entering the petrol station shop on Konrad-Adenauer-Damm, forcing him to hand over cash. After pocketing the money from the cash register, they fled the scene unrecognised and ran off in the direction of Medinghoven. A search for the suspects, which was immediately initiated by the police, was unsuccessful.

The police are now asking the public for information about the two suspects and/or their possible getaway vehicles. Witnesses are asked to call the police immediately on 0228/150.

The City of Bonn is opening an emergency shelter for refugees in Bonn-Beuel. A former commercial hall on Maarstraße in Beuel is to be made ready by Christmas and equipped with room dividers and several washrooms, the authorities said on Friday. The administration had already rented the commercial hall for 150 to 200 people seven years ago, it said.

They decided to get the site ready because it is expected that there will be a continued influx of refugees to Bonn in the near future, but the city's accommodation is currently almost full, according to a press release.

Homeless people should also be able to sleep in the emergency accommodation in Maarstraße on cold nights. To accommodate more refugees, the city is also planning to convert a former police station in Bad Godesberg in January 2023, and two containerised housing complexes are to be built in Pützchen and Dottendorf next year.

The city administration currently accommodates 2979 refugees, 1644 of them from Ukraine. According to the city of Bonn, there are also 512 homeless people.

Bertha von Suttner Platz was closed by the Bonn police for a short time on Saturday evening to allow for possible gatherings of Moroccan fans. But after the team was defeated in the World Cup match for third place, it remained quiet in the city centre. Police put up roadblocks shortly before 6 p.m. but removed them after 10 minutes "when it was clear that there would be no large motorcades," said a spokesperson on Saturday evening after the match.