Berlin, Feb. 22, (dpa/GNA) - The German ambassador in Tehran has again filed a formal protest with the Iranian government over its death sentence for German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd.
Ambassador Hans-Udo Muzel “made another clear protest to the Iranian Foreign Ministry,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman announced in Berlin on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had announced earlier in the day that two Iranian diplomats would be expelled from Germany at short notice in response to the ruling.
The spokesman said the Iranians would have to leave within a few days. He would not comment on what the expelled Iranians did at their embassy.
“You can assume that they were chosen in such a way as to impress upon Iran, in an appropriate way, the scope of the situation,” he said.
A revolutionary court in Tehran ruled that the 67-year-old Sharmahd was responsible for a terrorist attack, the government-backed Iranian justice portal Mizan reported. The verdict can be appealed.
The court also charged him with cooperating with foreign intelligence services. The activist was arrested by Iranian intelligence in Dubai in 2020 and brought to Iran. He has been detained in Tehran ever since.
Previously Sharmahd lived in the United States for years. His family and human rights groups reject the accusations against him. He was involved in an exile opposition group Tondar, or Thunder, when he lived in the United States. The group campaigns for the return of Iran’s monarchy.
Iran’s judiciary says the organization carried out a terror attack in 2008 in a mosque in the city of Shiraz, which left several people dead. Three men have already been executed in relation to the attack.
The German government wants Iran to reverse the death sentence, give Sharmahd a fair trial, allow it consular access and permit it to attend court proceedings.
Iran has denied access, citing Sharmahd’s dual nationality, and repeatedly rejected Germany’s requests for access and to attend his trial.
“Time and again, our colleagues on the ground at the court in Tehran were turned away,” said the spokesman, adding that the German government would be active in any appeals filed.
GNA