Iran has declared two German diplomats undesirable persons and thus expelled them. The spokesman for the foreign ministry in Tehran, Nasser Kanaani, explained the reasoning by saying that Germany was “irresponsibly interfering in Iran’s internal and legal affairs”. The Foreign Office in Berlin described the decision as “expectable” but “in no way justified”.
Last week, the Foreign Office expelled two employees of the Iranian embassy and summoned the chargé d’affaires. According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the chargé d’affaires was informed that “we do not accept the massive violation of the rights of a German citizen”.
Baerbock was reacting to the death sentence imposed by an Iranian court on the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd. The 67-year-old activist and software developer was convicted of “corruption on earth” in the Islamic Republic. Iran has accused Sharmahd of membership in a pro-monarchist group blamed for a deadly 2008 bombing. The judgment can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Baerbock criticized the verdict: “To pronounce a death sentence in a procedure that is not a constitutional procedure contradicts all international law.” She also said: “We call on Iran to revoke Jamshid Sharmahd’s death sentence and to allow him a fair and legal appeal process.”
The Federal Foreign Office emphasized that with the decision to expel the two Iranian diplomats, the German government “reacted in an appropriate manner to the death sentence and the massive violation of the rights of the German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd”. The now ordered expulsion of the German diplomats is “arbitrary and unjustified, they are not guilty of anything”.