Germany Expels Two Iranian Envoys
BERLIN (Dispatches) – Iran on Wednesday expelled two Iranian diplomats in reprisal for a death sentence handed down to the ringleader of a U.S.-based terrorist group accused of committing a series of terror attacks in the country.
The Federal Foreign Office announced in a statement that Germany had declared two employees of the Iranian Embassy in Berlin “personae non gratae” and ordered them to leave the country.
The decision was made after the Iranian Judiciary sentenced Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, who also holds
German citizenship, to death on charges of “corruption on earth” by planning and orchestrating terrorist acts against the Islamic Republic.
Germany also summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires over the verdict, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accusing the Islamic Republic of the “massive violation of the rights of a German citizen.”
In support of the terrorist ringleader, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also condemned Sharmahd’s death sentence and said the verdict was “unacceptable.”
Sharmahd, who holds is also a U.S. resident, was the ringleader of the Tondar (Thunder) terrorist outfit. He was accused of planning a series of attacks, including a 2008 attack against a religious congregation center in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, Fars Province, which killed 14 people and wounded hundreds.
Sharmahd and his Tondar group, were also behind a 2010 terrorist bombing at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in the Iranian capital, which left several people injured.
The 67-year-old is also accused of working with U.S. intelligence and spying on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
According to Judiciary’s Mizan news agency, Sharmahd had planned to commit 23 terrorist acts and succeeded in executing five, adding, “His verdict can still be appealed in the Supreme Court.”