Germany will close all Iranian consulates in response to the execution of its citizen

In Germany, all three consulates general of Iran will be closed in response to the execution of the German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmakhd.

This was reported by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Tagesschau reports.

Iranian consulates will be closed in Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg. The Iranian embassy in Berlin will continue to work. Those of the 32 consulate employees who do not have German citizenship will have to leave Germany.

Earlier, Germany repeatedly told Iran that the execution of Sharmakhd would have "serious consequences". Baerbock said she would also push for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be added to the European Unionʼs terrorist list. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also "in the strongest possible terms" condemned Sharmakhdʼs execution, calling it a "scandal."

Execution of Jamshid Sharmahd

Jamshid Sharmahd held dual citizenship of Germany and Iran, as well as a US residency permit. Sharmahd, 69, was living in California before the abduction, believed to have taken place in Dubai, and subsequent detention in Iran.

In 2023, Sharmahd was sentenced to death after being convicted by Iranʼs Islamic Revolutionary Court of involvement in the 2008 Shiraz mosque bombing that killed 14 people.

The official verdict was presented in less clear wording and used the universal term "spreading corruption". Iran also accused him of contacting "officers of the US Federal Intelligence Bureau and the US Central Intelligence Agency" and of "attempting to contact Israeli Mossad agents."

Tehran accused the Iranian-German citizen of being "the leader of the Tondar terrorist organization, which directed armed and terrorist activities in Iran from America." The Tondar Organization is the armed wing of the "Assembly of the Kingdom of Iran" based in California (USA) and claims to seek to restore the Iranian monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Germany, the European Union and other countries have called for the death penalty to be abolished. Human rights organizations pointed to the injustice of Sharmahdʼs trial.

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