TEHRAN, Aug 21 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran shut down two branches of “illegal centres affiliated with the German government” in Tehran, yesterday, due to “various illegal activities and widespread financial violations.”
The closures followed a judicial order for the branches’ “violation of Iranian law,” the Mizan news agency of the Iranian judiciary reported, without disclosing the centres’ names.
The report, however, published photos of Iranian security forces bringing down the signboard of the German Language Institute of Tehran.
According to the report, Iranian authorities have also received reports of violations by other centres affiliated with the German government, which are currently under investigation.
The closures came, after the German Interior Ministry’s decision in July, to ban the Islamic Centre in Hamburg, and its affiliated organisations across Germany, claiming that the centre was “an Islamist extremist organisation pursuing anti-constitutional objectives.”
In response, Iran summoned German ambassador to Tehran and condemned the decision as a “hostile act, contrary to the fundamental principles of human rights.”– NNN-IRNA
