Reaction to execution: Iranian general consulates closed since Monday

The three Iranian consulates general in Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt have been officially closed to the public since Monday. The Foreign Office informed the German Press Agency in Berlin of this upon request. The closure is a response to the execution of German-Iranian dual citizen Djamshid Sharmahd. The embassy in Berlin remains open and is still responsible for consular support for the 300,000 Iranians in Germany.

Iran’s judiciary announced Sharmahd’s execution on October 28. He was sentenced to death in spring 2023 in a controversial trial following terrorism allegations. The federal government, relatives and human rights activists had vehemently rejected the allegations against him.

Deadline for vacating the properties

With the closure of the consulate general, the official operations of the consulates have ceased. It is part of diplomatic practice to grant a further period of time independently of this so that the properties can be cleared, files destroyed or returned to the sending state.

According to previous information, a total of 32 Iranian consular officials were employed in the missions. The consular officials affected lose their right of residence and must leave the country unless they can demonstrate other reasons for residence, such as EU citizenship.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) justified the closure of the consulate general with the “inhumane actions” of the Iranian leadership. This shows “that a dictatorial, unjust regime like that of the mullahs does not operate according to normal diplomatic logic,” she explained.

New low in German-Iranian relations

With the closure of the general consulates, German-Iranian relations, which were already severely restricted, have reached a new low. After the death sentence against Sharmahd, the Foreign Office expelled two Iranian diplomats. Iran, for its part, responded by expelling the same number of German diplomats. This is a common procedure in such cases. The Foreign Office warns against traveling to Iran and has asked German citizens to leave the country. It is unclear how many Germans are still in the country. At the end of October it was said that a low three-digit number of German citizens had registered on the Foreign Office’s crisis preparedness list.

Sharmahd came to Germany at the age of seven

Sharmahd was born in Tehran in 1955, came to Germany at the age of seven and grew up in Lower Saxony, where he ran a computer shop in the state capital Hanover for years. In 2003 he moved to California. In the USA, Sharmahd was active in the Iranian exile opposition group “Tondar” (Thunder). The Iranian government accuses the monarchist organization of being responsible for an attack in 2008 in the city of Shiraz that left several people dead. The allegations cannot be independently verified – relatives of the dead had called for Sharmahd’s execution.