Iranian-German Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death in Iran in a controversial trial. A revolutionary court in Tehran holds the 67-year-old man responsible for, among other things, a terrorist attack, as the Misan justice portal announced on Tuesday. The judgment can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
The activist Sharmahd was reportedly arrested by the Iranian secret service in Dubai in the summer of 2020 and taken to Iran. Since then, he has been imprisoned in Tehran. Sharmahd previously lived in the United States for years. His family and human rights groups have previously denied the allegations against him.
Sharmahd was involved in the exiled opposition group “Tondar” (Thunder) in the US, which advocates a return to the monarchy. Iran’s judiciary holds the organization responsible for a 2008 attack on a mosque in the city of Shiraz that killed several people. Three men have already been executed for this.
As an engineer and IT specialist, Sharmahd also participated in a radio program run by the exile group. In 2019, the group’s website, which has since been deleted but can be accessed as an archive, reported that the radio program broadcasts content on politics and history, but also instructions on how to resist. Tondar denounced the persecution of its members by the Islamic Republic.
Several European citizens are currently detained in Iran
It is unclear whether Sharmahd can receive consular assistance from the German embassy in Tehran. Iran treats citizens with dual citizenship legally as Iranians. Amnesty International previously described the trial as a show trial.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz announced in early January that he would take over Sharmahd’s political patronage. “With my patronage, I want to set an example for all men and women who are fighting for a free and self-determined life in Iran,” Merz said on the Twitter account. “The world is watching what is happening in Iran.”
Several European nationals are currently being held in Iran, many of whom are also Iranian nationals. Critics accuse Iran of holding foreigners as political hostages. Tehran denies the allegations and often justifies arrests with allegations of spying.