Germany declares 2 Iranian diplomats “persona non grata” over death sentence

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock slammed Iranian court’s decision, and stated the Iranian embassy’s charge d’affaires was summoned to the ministry to condemn the move.

“He was told that we do not accept the massive violation of the rights of a German citizen,” Baerbock said in a statement.

“As a result, the German government has declared two members of the Iranian embassy to be persona non grata, and asked them to leave Germany immediately,” she added.

Baerbock urged Iranian authorities to revoke the death sentence against Sharmahd, and give him “a fair trial and due process of appeal.”

A court in Iran has sentenced Sharmahd to death for committing terror attacks and counterrevolutionary operations against the Islamic Republic.

Sharmahd, 67, the leader of the Tondar (Thunder) terrorist outfit, was found guilty of spreading corruption on earth.

He has a dual Iranian and German citizenship and used to be based in the US. The group was founded in Britain in 2003 by a number of anti-Iran royalists with the aim of theorizing anti-religion terrorism.

The prosecutor’s representative, the families of the victims of the group’s terrorist acts and the defendant and his lawyers attended Sharmah’s trial that began in 2019.

The prosecutor charged Sharmahd with plotting to carry out 23 terrorist acts, but was successful in only five cases and failed in 18 others.

Sharmahd confessed to carrying out deadly explosions in a large religious gathering in Shiraz the capital city of Fars Province south of Iran, Imam Khomeini’s mausoleum in southern Tehran, Sivand Dam in the province of Fars and Tehran’s Jahan Hotel, and also plotting a bombing attack on the seminary of Iran’s late prominent cleric, Ayatollah Lotfollah Saafi Golpayegani in the city of Qum, south of the capital.