Germany’s Baerbock talks ‘consular cases’ with Iran

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday discussed “consular cases” in a phone call with her Iranian counterpart, her ministry said.

Baerbock and Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian “discussed their different stances on a range of issues,” the ministry wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“There was a particular focus on German consular cases” in the conversation, which was “open, clear and straightforward,” it said.

Campaigners have been pleading for Germany to help Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent, who has been sentenced to death by Tehran.

Sharmahd was abducted in late July 2020 by the Iranian authorities and sentenced earlier this year to be hanged for “corruption on earth.”

Iran’s Supreme Court in April confirmed the death penalty.

Activists regard him as one of more than a dozen foreign passport holders held by Iran as hostages in a bid to extract concessions from the West.

His family says that Tehran-born Sharmahd, 68, a software developer who emigrated to Germany in the 1980s but then moved to live in the United States, was kidnapped by Iranian security services in the United Arab Emirates in July 2020, spirited over the border into Oman and then taken to Iran for trial.

His daughter has met US officials in Washington seeking their help to pressure Iran to spare her father from death row.

She has also brought charges in Germany against eight Iranian officials for “crimes against humanity.”

Baerbock is currently on a trip to the United States and on Tuesday visited Austin, Texas. She is due in Washington and New York later in the week.