The 68-year-old Sharmahd was found guilty in February in Tehran of alleged involvement in an attack on a mosque in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz in April 2008 and sentenced to death. The Iranian judiciary also accuses Sharmahd of maintaining contacts with foreign secret services. The Supreme Court in Iran has now confirmed the verdict that the measures for Sharmahd’s execution on terror charges should “be taken”, according to a justice spokesman in Tehran.
The Foreign Office said it was “dismayed” to hear the news of the death sentence. Baerbock wrote on Twitter: “In Berlin and Tehran we are doing all we can for Mr. Sharmahd and against the execution of the sentence.” The German ambassador in Iran “immediately canceled a business trip and is on his way back to Tehran to intervene with the Iranian authorities.” The judgment was “arbitrary” and “unacceptable”. “Jamshid Sharmahd never had a fair trial approach.”
According to his family, the opposition figure, who last lived in the United States for years, was abducted to Iran by the Iranian secret service in 2020 during a stopover in Dubai. Sharmahd is said to have led the Tondar (Thunder) opposition group, which is working to overthrow the Islamic leadership in Tehran and is classified as a “terrorist organization” in Iran.
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, it is the first death sentence against a German citizen in Iran. Amnesty called the verdict “deeply inhuman and cruel” and called for “clear and perceptible diplomatic consequences” from the federal government. Following the verdict in February, Berlin had already expelled two Iranian diplomats, and Tehran responded by expelling two German diplomats.
At least 16 Westerners are currently being held in Iran. Most of them also have Iranian citizenship. However, Iran does not recognize dual citizenship and treats those arrested as Iranians.
In January, Iran caused international outrage with the execution of former British-Iranian politician Alireza Akbari, who was convicted of alleged espionage. According to Amnesty, three death sentences have been carried out in Iran in the recent past, just one to two weeks after the sentence was confirmed.
The chair of the human rights committee in the Bundestag, Renata Alt (FDP), called for the execution of Sharmahd to be prevented. There can be no more cooperation with a “regime that kidnaps a German citizen from a third country, keeps him in solitary confinement for years, tortures him and sentences him to death without his own legal counsel.” CDU leader Friedrich Merz was also “deeply shocked” on Twitter and called on Iran to “allow Sharmahd to travel to his home country of Germany immediately”.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the judiciary in Iran reported on Wednesday that a prisoner exchange with Belgium had been “decided and ended.” The development worker Olivier Vandecasteele was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes in Iran after allegations of espionage. The Belgian’s family complained that he was in solitary confinement despite “serious health problems”. According to Iranian statements, he should be exchanged for the Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium because he is said to have planned a bomb attack at an event of Iranian opposition members near Paris in 2018.
A government representative in Brussels immediately denied to AFP that an agreement on an exchange had been reached. Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne also denied this via Twitter, saying Iran wanted to “create confusion” in a “very sensitive” case.
