Holland recalled its ambassador from Iran for consultation over the sentence to death of a 46-year-old Dutch-Iranian woman, Zahra Bahrami.
Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, who is currently on, the Mideast visit, is furious that it has emerged that Bahrami, who was executed last week, has been buried without the foreknowledge of her family.
Before the ambassador returns to The Hague, he will first at the request of the minister issue a sharp protest to the Iranian authorities on the "disrespectful behaviour of the Iranians towards the relatives of Bahrami," Rosenthal said in Amman, Jordan, where he was on a visit.
Just over a week ago, the Netherlands heard that the woman was hung for drugs smuggling and involvement with violent opposition. A day earlier, Rosenthal was still being told that her court case was still underway. In reaction to the execution - a "barbarous deed by a barbarous regime", the minister had then already frozen all contacts with Iran.
In addition, according to a Dutch newspaper, the ambassador in Teheran ‘found a closed door’ when he went to attend a meeting at the Iranian foreign ministry.
According to Bahrami's lawyer in Holland, his client was executed for political reasons rather than drug possession. The bodies of political prisoners in Iran are never returned to the family, to prevent a political manifestation around the funeral.