By Germany has lodged a sharp protest with Iran over the execution of Iranian German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces, and has recalled its ambassador to Berlin for consultations.
The German Foreign Ministry announced on the social network X that Iran’s charge d’affaires in Berlin was summoned to hear “our sharp protest” against Tehran’s action, adding that it reserves the right to take “further measures” without elaborating.
Simultaneously, German Ambassador Markus Potzel “protested in the strongest terms against the murder of Jamshid Sharmahd” to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Following this, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock recalled Potzel to Berlin for consultations.
Sharmahd, 69, was executed in Iran on Monday on terrorism charges, according to the country’s judiciary, following a 2023 trial that Germany, the U.S., and international rights groups dismissed as a sham.
Sharmahd was one of several Iranian dissidents abroad who, in recent years, were either tricked or kidnapped back to Iran as Tehran began lashing out after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, including Germany.
Iran accused Sharmahd, a resident of Glendora, California, of planning a 2008 mosque attack that killed 14 people and wounded over 200 others, as well as plotting other assaults through the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing. The country also accused him of “disclosing classified information” on missile sites of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard during a television program in 2017.
Sharmahd’s family disputed the allegations and had worked for years to secure his freedom.
In a post on X, Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi stated that “no terrorist enjoys impunity in Iran. Even if supported by Germany.” He accused Baerbock of “gaslighting” and claimed that “your government is accomplice in the ongoing Israeli genocide.”
Sharmahd had been in Dubai in 2020, attempting to travel to India for a business deal involving his software company, when he was abducted. Iran announced his capture in a “complex operation” two days after his mobile phone signal stopped in Oman.
Germany expelled two Iranian diplomats last year over Sharmahd’s death sentence. Chancellor Olaf Scholz labeled the execution a “scandal,” and Baerbock stated that Germany had repeatedly made it clear to Tehran that executing a German national would have severe consequences.
In Brussels, European Union spokesperson Nabila Massrali condemned the killing “in the strongest possible terms” and said that “the EU is considering all measures in response,” noting that any action would need to be discussed among the bloc’s 27 member countries.
