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 had expelled two employees of the Iranian embassy last week and summoned the chargé d’affaires. Foreign Minister Annalena 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-monarchy group blamed for a deadly 2008 bombing. The judgment can be appealed to the Supreme Court.