Iran executes German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd

Iranian state media reported that Jamshid Sharmahd was executed on Monday after being convicted last year.  

Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February 2023 following a conviction by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges linked to his involvement in a deadly 2008 attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people.

However, the formal conviction in Iran was for the much more vague Iranian criminal offense of spreading "corruption on Earth," a catch-all phrase the Islamic regime uses for an array of purported crimes, often related to religious values.

Iranian media including the legal news site Mizan reported that the execution took place on Monday morning. 

Iran had also accused him of being in contact with "FBI and CIA officers" and of having "attempted to contact Israeli Mossad agents."

California resident likely seized in Dubai in 2020

Tehran had accused Sharmahd of being the "ringleader of the terrorist Tondar group, who directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America." The little-known Tondar group, the armed wing of the "Kingdom Assembly of Iran," is based in California and says it seeks to restore Iran's monarchy that was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Before his kidnapping, believed to have taken place in Dubai, and subsequent detention in Iran, the 69-year old Sharmahd had been residing in California.

His daughter, Gazelle, had spearheaded the fight calling for him to be spared execution.

Germany, the EU and others had also called for the death sentence to be lifted.

"I don't think words can change a terrorist regime," Gazelle Sharmahd told DW soon after her father's conviction in 2023. "This is a regime that kidnaps people like my Dad from outside of Iran, takes them over there. ... This terrorist regime will not respond to any kind of talks or diplomacy. We have seen this, unfortunately."

Sharmahd's sentence was upheld by Iran's highest court last October.

Berlin decries 'murder' of Sharmahd

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned "the murder" of the dual national "in the strongest possible terms."

"Jamshid Sharmahd has been kidnapped from Dubai to Iran, held for years without a fair trial and has now been killed," she said, adding that the German Embassy in Tehran and her ministry have been working hard on his case, including sending high-ranking delegations to Tehran.

"We made it clear to Tehran time after time that executing a German national would have serious consequences," she said in an online post, without specifying Germany's next steps.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also condemned the execution of Sharmahd "in the strongest terms," calling it "a scandal."

"Jamshid Sharmahd was not even given the opportunity to defend himself in court against the accusations made against him," Scholz wrote on X. "The German government has repeatedly and intensively supported Mr Sharmahd. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family."

Earlier on Monday, conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz called the execution a "heinous crime" and said the trial had been a "mockery" of international legal standards. 

"The Iranian regime has once again shown its inhumane character," Merz said. "I call on the [German] federal government to respond decisively. The 'quiet diplomacy' approach with Iran has failed. The Iranian ambassador must be expelled. The downgrading of diplomatic relations to the charge d'affaires level is required."

Merz also appealed for Germany to seek tougher European sanctions on Iran, and said that Germany's bilateral approach to Iran in recent years had been based on the idea of Tehran being cooperative: "This illusion should, at the latest, be shattered following the execution of a Germany citizen in an illegal process," he said.

Amnesty International lamented 'grossly unfair' trial

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock last year called Sharmahd's setence "absolutely unacceptable," and also said he had not been given a fair trial. 

Rights NGO Amnesty International made similar complaints in reports on the case, calling the legal proceedings "grossly unfair." In a report on the original conviction last April, Amnesty said Sharmahd was denied access to an independent lawyer of his own choosing and alleged that the state-appointed defense attorney's services were inadequate. 

"His government-appointed lawyer told his family on July 2, 2022, that there was 'no point' to him objecting against the Revolutionary Court admitting his forced 'confessions' as evidence," Amnesty wrote. "Prior to this, on May 9, 2021, the government-appointed lawyer said that without payment of US$250,000 from the family, he would not defend Jamshid Sharmahd in court and would only 'sit there'."

msh/dj (AP, dpa, Reuters)