Germany recalls ambassador from Iran to protest execution of Iranian German prisoner

BERLIN (AP) — Germany protested to Iran Tuesday over its execution. Iranian-German captive Jamshid Sharmahdwho lived in the US and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces, and recalled her ambassador to Berlin for consultations.

The Foreign Ministry wrote on social media site X that Iran’s charge d’affaires in Berlin had been summoned to listen to “our strong protest” against Tehran’s actions, and added that it reserved the right to take “further measures.” It didn’t specify.

At the same time, German Ambassador Markus Potzel “protested in the strongest possible terms against the killing of Jamshid Sharmahd” to Iran’s foreign minister, the report said. German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock then recalled him to Berlin for consultations.

Sharmahd, 69 years old, was execute in Iran on Monday on terrorism charges, the country’s judiciary said. It followed a 2023 trial that Germany, the US and international rights groups called a sham.

He was one of several Iranian dissidents abroad in recent years. either deceived or kidnapped back to Iran how Tehran began to lash out after the collapse 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers including Germany.

Iran accused Sharmakhd, who lived in Glendora, California, of about planning an attack in 2008 at a mosque that killed 14 people, including five women and a child, and wounded more than 200 others, and planned other attacks through the little-known Assembly of the Kingdom of Iran and its militant wing Tondar.

Iran also accused Sharmakhd of “revealing classified information” about Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard missile sites during a television program in 2017.

His family disputed the charges and fought for his release for years.

Sharmahd was in Dubai in 2020, trying to travel to India for a business deal involving his software company. He was hoping to catch a connecting flight even as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted travel around the world.

The Sharmakhd family received the last message from him on July 28, 2020. It is unclear how the abduction occurred. But tracking data showed that on July 29, Sharmahd’s mobile phone traveled south from Dubai to the city of Al Ain, crossing the border into Oman. On July 30, tracking data showed that the mobile phone arrived in the Omani port city of Sohar, where the signal stopped.

Two days later, Iran announced that it had captured Sharmahd in a “sophisticated operation.” The Ministry of Intelligence published a photograph of him blindfolded.

Germany expelled two Iranian diplomats in 2023 due to Sharmahd’s death sentence.