Execution of Jamshid Sharmahd: Germany closes the three Iranian consulates on its soil

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Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in the country on Thursday in response to the execution of German-naturalized Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd, who lived in the United States and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces.

Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, accused of terrorism, was put to death in Iran on Monday, Iran's justice system said. The decision follows a trial held in 2023 that Germany, the United States and international human rights organizations called a sham.

The decision to close the Iranian consulates in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, announced by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, leaves the Islamic Republic with only its embassy in Berlin.

The German Foreign Ministry had already summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires on Tuesday to protest against the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd. German Ambassador Markus Potzel also protested to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, before being recalled to Berlin for consultations.

Iran has accused Jamshid Sharmahd, who lived in Glendora, California, of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people – including five women and a child – and injured more than 200 others, as well as than planning further attacks through the little-known Kingdom of Iran Assembly and its militant Tondar wing.

The regime also accused Jamshid Sharmahd of “disclosing classified information” about the Revolutionary Guard's missile sites during a television broadcast in 2017.

His family disputed the allegations and worked for years to have him released.

Iran reacted to Germany's protests. Abbas Araghchi wrote on Tuesday on the social network“A German passport does not offer impunity to anyone, least of all to a terrorist criminal.”

Germany, on the other hand, maintains the Iranian embassy in Berlin and its own embassy in Tehran, indicating that it does not want to close diplomatic channels to continue to defend the other Germans detained in Iran.