• German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd faces execution

• Strains between Berlin and Tehran worsened in recent months

By Golnar Motevalli and Michael Nienaber

Iran expelled two German diplomats after the government in Berlin condemned the Islamic Republic for the sentencing to death of a German-Iranian political activist on terrorism charges.

The move announced Wednesday by the foreign ministry mirrors the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats by Germany last week after Iran said it handed the death penalty to Jamshid Sharmahd, a US-based activist who was arrested by the Islamic Republic while traveling in Dubai in 2020.

Germany’s foreign ministry called the expulsion of its diplomats “arbitrary and unjustified” and again condemned Sharmahd’s sentencing as a “massive violation” of his rights.

Tensions between Tehran and Berlin have escalated significantly in recent months over Iran’s deadly crackdown on widespread anti-government protests, its advancing nuclear program and its sale of military drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine.

Germany has strongly condemned Iran’s use of force and executions to quell the unrest and has led efforts to tighten European Union sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Sharmahd has German and Iranian citizenship but was based in California where he led a dissident group that campaigned for an end to Iran’s theocracy. He is accused of being involved in a 2008 bomb attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people.

He and his family have denied the charges, according to London-based rights group Amnesty International, which said in a report last year that authorities in Tehran had tortured him in order to obtain a forced confession.