Germany faced a fresh crisis in its relations with Iran yesterday after an Islamic court ordered that a Hamburg businessman accused of adultery be stoned to death. The Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, called on Tehran to free the 54-year-old German and warned that relations between Bonn and Tehran would suffer if the sentence was carried out.
"I urge the Iranian justice authorities to show humanity and justice. There would be no understanding of this sentence in Germany or in the world, if it is enforced," he said.
But a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry insisted yesterday that the case had nothing to do with diplomatic relations between the two countries. He claimed that the government in Tehran was unable to intervene because the Iranian judicial system was independent.
Mr Helmut Hofer was arrested in September last year, less than a month after he arrived in Iran and accused of having sexual relations with a 27-year-old Muslim woman. Mr Hofer admits that he fell in love with the woman but insists that the couple never had sex and only kissed once.
Germany's mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper claimed yesterday that the woman, who was sentenced to 99 lashes, had undergone three medical tests, two of which found that she was still a virgin. The paper also suggested that the conviction was invalid under Islamic law because the alleged offence had not been witnessed by at least four people.
Germany's relations with Iran have been improving steadily since last April when Bonn led the EU in withdrawing its ambassador from Tehran. The reason for that diplomatic stand-off was a court ruling in Berlin which established that the Iranian authorities ordered the murder of four Iranian dissidents in the city in 1992.
Bonn hoped to restore full diplomatic relations with Tehran within the next few months and to resume its policy of "critical dialogue" with Iran. Such a move will now be impossible unless Tehran commutes the death sentence passed on Mr Hofer.
