Executions in Isfahan renew calls to end German city partnership

The public execution of two protesters in Isfahan has renewed calls for the German city of Freiburg to end its 25-year twinning with the Iranian city, with activists arguing the partnership lends legitimacy to a state punishing dissent with the death penalty.

The demands follow the executions of Amirhossein Safari and Abolfazl Sepahi in Isfahan's Alikhani Square in late July. Witnesses reported clashes between security forces and people who gathered to protest the hangings.

Freiburg, a university city in southwestern Germany, is the only municipality in the country to maintain a formal partnership with an Iranian city. Iranian activists have long argued that the arrangement, established in 2000, legitimizes the Islamic Republic despite its human rights record.

Mayor Martin Horn has rejected those arguments. Speaking to Frankfurter Rundschau in June, he said, "We as a city do not conduct foreign policy," adding that shutting the door on Isfahan would undermine engagement with ordinary Iranians.

"People are reaching out to the West, and we slam the door shut? That is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing."

‘Nothing against Isfahan’

Germany-based dissident Mina Ahadi, who led a successful international campaign against Iran's practice of public stoning, said the latest executions had fundamentally changed the debate.

"I have been protesting for a long time against this twin-city partnership between Freiburg and Isfahan because it is, in reality, a relationship with the state structures of the Islamic Republic," she told Iran International.

Such a partnership primarily serves Islamic Iran's propaganda and grants legitimacy to its networks.

"I therefore support the numerous protests and demands to end this partnership—especially in light of the current tragedy in Isfahan: the public execution of two young people and the threat of the death penalty facing further individuals in this city."

Ahadi said ending the partnership would not be directed against the people of Isfahan but would instead demonstrate solidarity with Iranians confronting state repression.

"It would be a sign of support for the people in Iran, who themselves are victims of the policies of the Islamic Republic," she said.

‘Unjustifiable’

Behrouz Asadi, spokesperson for Woman Life Freedom Germany, likewise argued that the partnership had ceased to function as a neutral cultural exchange.

"The twin-city partnership between Freiburg and Isfahan has clearly shown in recent years that it is not an apolitical cultural exchange," he said. "As long as the Islamic Republic controls the exchange, such a partnership primarily serves its propaganda and grants legitimacy to its networks—not to the people of Isfahan."

He said recent executions, alongside the imprisonment of activists and members of the Baha'i community, made it increasingly difficult to justify maintaining the relationship.

"The people of Isfahan have taken to the streets for freedom, democracy and human dignity," Asadi said.

In 2010, Weimar ended its relationship with Shiraz after Iranian officials refused to visit Buchenwald's concentration camp.

"Many have suffered prison, torture or even death for it. It is not justifiable toward them to maintain a partnership that creates the impression that normal cultural exchange with this regime is possible."

Defense of human rights

The debate has also drawn attention to Baden-Württemberg's antisemitism commissioner, Michael Blume, whom some critics accuse of failing to challenge the Freiburg-Isfahan partnership. Blume did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Iran International.

The partnership has faced criticism before. In 2010, the German city of Weimar ended its relationship with Shiraz after Iranian officials visiting Germany refused to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial.

For campaigners, however, the executions in Isfahan have raised the stakes beyond a long-running dispute over municipal diplomacy.

They argue the question is no longer whether cultural engagement remains desirable, but whether maintaining official ties with an Iranian municipality can be reconciled with a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation.

“Verbal distancing is no longer enough,” said Asadi. “Anyone who takes human rights seriously must draw consequences. That is why I demand the termination of the twin-city partnership with Isfahan.”

Source: Iran International, Benjamin Weinthal, August 6, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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