69-year-old Jamshid Sharmahd was a journalist and outspoken critic of the Tehran government who had been living in California since 2003 before he was kidnapped by Iranian security forces in Dubai in 2020. The Iranian regime unfoundedly claimed he was involved in a 2008 terror attack on a mosque and had committed "multiple terrorist acts" under the orders of US and Israeli intelligence services. He was executed after years of torture in an Iran prison.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced the decision to close the Iranian Consulates located in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich on Thursday, which leaves the Islamic Republic only an embassy in Berlin, the Associated Press reports. The decision came after Iran’s charge d’affaires was summoned by the German Foreign Ministry and the German Ambassador in Iran was recalled on Tuesday in protest of the execution.
Iran pushed back the protests, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posting a lengthy message to X: "No terrorist enjoys impunity in Iran. Even if supported by Germany. Iranian national Jamshid Sharmahd openly and unashamedly led a terrorist attack on a MOSQUE that killed 14 innocent people—including women and children. More than 200 were injured. The evidence is public and available for all to see. A German passport does not provide impunity to anyone, let alone a terrorist criminal."
He called on Baerbock to stop "gaslighting" Iran in the message posted Tuesday, adding "Stop supporting child killers and terrorists and do not hide yourself behind hypocritical human rights slogans. We have not forgotten about the chemical weapons provided to Saddam's regime by German nationals. Your government is accomplice in the ongoing Israeli genocide. Germany is the No#2 provider of lethal weapons to Israel for its genocidal campaign in Gaza and carnage in Lebanon. Look around. Even your own people ridicule your arrogant human rights claims."
Sharmahd's family had proclaimed his innocence and had worked for years to have him freed. His daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, called the Biden-Harris administration "incompetent and corrupt" for failing to save her father.
