Germany expels two Iranians diplomats
Germany has declared two employees of the Iranian Embassy in Berlin personae non gratae and ordered them to leave the country, a statement from the foreign office said Wednesday.
The decision was announced after an Iranian court sentenced German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd to death.
Germany also summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires over the verdict, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
“He was informed that we do not accept the massive violation of the rights of a German citizen,” Baerbock added. “We call on Iran to revoke Jamshid Sharmahd’s death sentence and provide him with a fair appeal process based on the rule of law.”
Authorities in Tehran handed 67-year-old Sharmahd the death penalty on Tuesday after he was convicted of terrorist activities.
Iran accuses him of leading an armed pro-monarchist group that it says carried out a deadly terror attack at a mosque in Shiraz in 2008.
Sharmahd, who is also a US resident, denies the charges, and his family has decribed the legal process as a “sham trial.”
Berlin has said the Sharmahd did not have “even the beginning of a fair trial,” and that access to the trial had been denied.