The German government has announced the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats in retaliation for the death sentence of a German-Iranian dissident, whose daughter calls on Europeans to “use all means” to save him.
The sentence for Jamshid Sharmahd, 67, is “unacceptable”, denounced in a tweet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, “asking the Iranian regime to reverse its decision”.
In retaliation, the head of German diplomacy Annalena Baerbock “summoned the charge d’affaires of the Iranian embassy” to “inform him that we do not accept the massive violation of the rights of a German national” .
“The government has declared two members of the Iranian embassy undesirable and asked them to leave Germany as soon as possible”, announced the minister, asking for “a fair appeal procedure in accordance with the rule of law”. .
Ms. Baerbock had already warned on Tuesday that the possible application of this sentence “would lead to a significant reaction” from Berlin.
Jamshid Sharmahd appeared in court in Tehran in February 2022 on charges of involvement in an attack on a mosque in Shiraz, southern Iran, which killed 14 people in April 2008.
The justice also accused him of having established contacts with American “FBI and CIA officers” and of having “attempted to contact Israeli Mossad agents”.
Supporters of Mr. Sharmahd in Germany had rejected these accusations, urging Berlin to “act immediately” to “save [his] life”.
European countries “should use all the means in their political arsenal” to put pressure on Tehran, his daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, reacted to AFP, calling for “extreme measures”.
“This is the last chance to save my father’s life,” she warned, alerting to the deterioration in prison of the dissident’s state of health.
“We don’t even know where he is, we don’t know how he is or even if he knows about this horrible news” of the verdict, she explains.
Jamshid Sharmahd’s death sentence was handed down by a lower court and can therefore be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Iran announced in August 2020 the arrest of the dissident who then resided in the United States, during a “complex operation”, without specifying where or how or when he was arrested.
According to his family, he was abducted by Iranian security services while in transit in Dubai and forcibly brought to Iran.
This condemnation was denounced by several NGOs such as Amnesty International.
“They kidnapped Jamshid Sharmahd and now they are sending him to die after a sham trial,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), said on Tuesday.
“In fact, the Islamic Republic is simply threatening to kill a hostage,” he said.
Tehran had provoked a wave of international indignation after in January executing a former senior Iranian Ministry of Defense official, the Iranian-Briton Alireza Akbari, convicted of espionage.
The death sentence for Jamshid Sharmahd was announced the day after new European Union sanctions against Iran. Two Iranian ministers and 30 other people were sanctioned on Monday by the EU for the suppression of demonstrations in Iran organized since the death in custody, on September 16, of a young Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini.
At least 16 Western passport holders, including six French, are detained in Iran.
Most of them are dual nationals but Iran does not recognize dual nationality status for its nationals.
“My father and all dual nationals are scapegoats in this unhealthy game in which” Iranian power is engaged, according to the daughter of the dissident.
22/02/2023 15:13:33 – Berlin (AFP) © 2023 AFP
