The household of Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen who the Iranian judiciary stated was executed in Iran final week, want proof that he was certainly put to dying and are open to all prospects over his destiny, his daughter stated.
Sharmahd, who was born in Iran however grew to become a German citizen and was a everlasting resident in the US, was executed on October 28 on the cost of “corruption on earth”, in response to the Mizan On-line information web site of the Iranian judiciary.
However his US-based daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, informed AFP in a phone interview the household had no proof of his execution aside from such stories and likewise had no indication of how his physique could possibly be introduced dwelling.
Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was tried and convicted after he was in July 2020 kidnapped within the United Arab Emirates by Iranian brokers and forcibly delivered to Iran, in response to the household and the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention in a 2022 report.
Iran doesn’t recognise twin citizenship and introduced Sharmahd’s arrest after a “complicated operation”, with out giving particulars.
In addition to being a German citizen, Jamshid Sharmahd must also be thought of a US nationwide in step with a 2020 invoice that handed the Senate, his daughter stated, urging Berlin and Washington to do extra to seek out out what occurred to him and enhance strain on Tehran.
“We’re nonetheless awaiting verification by the Germans and People on what has occurred to their German-American hostage,” she stated.
– ‘Many prospects’ –
“There are a lot of prospects of what may have occurred. He may have been poisoned, he may have been injected with one thing, he may have died on account of ailing therapy in over 1,500 days of solitary confinement. He may have been hanged. He could possibly be alive. We do not know.”
With out proof, “we can’t leap to conclusions,” she stated, emphasising that the German and American governments had additionally supplied no additional proof of the execution.
The case of Jamshid Sharmahd had lengthy been shrouded in uncertainty.
There have been by no means stories of fellow detainees having seen him, though international passport holders are recognized to often cross paths in Tehran’s Evin jail. Throughout his captivity, he made a handful of telephone calls to his household however was by no means allowed to disclose the place he was being held.
Gazelle Sharmahd famous that her father’s execution had been introduced by Mizan On-line late night Iranian time, whereas executions in Iran virtually at all times happen within the early morning and if confirmed by official media are introduced shortly afterwards.
Its report, extremely unusually, additionally didn’t reveal the place he was put to dying.
“It’s now the duty of Germany and the US to offer deadlines to switch the physique to the household. If there’s a corpse, he must be returned and introduced again to us as quickly as attainable,” Gazelle Sharmahd stated.
– ‘Complicit’ in crimes –
In his trial, Sharmahd was accused of involvement in a bombing in opposition to a mosque in 2008 within the southern metropolis of Shiraz that killed 14 folks in addition to espionage, claims rejected by the United Nations Working Group.
His household have lengthy maintained that Sharmahd was harmless.
In the US, Sharmahd helped develop an internet site for an opposition motion and hosted radio broadcasts vital of the Islamic republic authorities.
The household says Sharmahd, who was born in 1955 underneath imperial rule, has by no means held a passport issued by the Islamic republic.
The UN Working Group stated his “arbitrary” arrest lacked a authorized foundation and was due solely to “his respectable train of freedom of opinion and expression”.
Amnesty Worldwide stated the trial was “grossly unfair” and Iran had inflicted “unrelenting cruelties” on him and his household.
In response to the execution reported by Iran, Germany ordered the closure of Iranian consulates on its territory. The measure doesn’t apply to Iran’s Berlin embassy.
“We have now repeatedly and unambiguously made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen could have critical penalties,” stated German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock.
However Gazelle Sharmahd stated the step didn’t go far sufficient and criticised each the German and US administrations for inaction.
“That may have been the minimal response 4 years in the past. Is it sufficient now? No. If we don’t perceive that we can’t have embassies, enterprise or negotiations with the Islamic terrorists then I have no idea what we’re going to do,” she stated.
“Each governments (US and Germany) had loads of possibilities to get my father out or a minimum of have his dying sentence revoked. They’re complicit within the crimes in opposition to my father.”
