Iran’s execution of a German-Iranian dissident this week is a transparent message {that a} Western passport can not protect critics of the Tehran authorities, Iranians with twin nationality say.
Jamshid Sharmahd, 69, was executed on Monday after a number of years behind bars, sparking condemnation from Germany and the European Union.
“It is terrifying to get up to this sort of information. It is proof that this regime is staying in energy by violence, cruelty and executions,” mentioned Sahar Aghakhani, a 30-year-old Franco-Iranian working within the well being sector.
“However it’s additionally a message: twin nationality doesn’t shield you towards the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, had written for an Iranian opposition group’s web site primarily based overseas that strongly criticised the Islamic republic’s management.
Iranian authorities seized Sharmahd in 2020 whereas he was within the United Arab Emirates, in keeping with his household.
Iran accused him of involvement in a lethal 2008 mosque bombing, and sentenced him to dying in 2023 after what rights group Amnesty Worldwide referred to as “pressured confessions” and a “sham trial”.
Now the the households of different detainees are nervous, together with the spouse of Iranian-Swedish educational Ahmadreza Djalali.
The resident of Sweden was arrested in Iran in 2016 and sentenced to dying in 2017 on prices of spying for Israel’s Mossad. He has since been granted Swedish nationality.
“I am actually afraid,” Vida Mehrannia informed AFP.
“We can not forestall the identical situation from occurring to Ahmadreza.”
– ‘Very chilling impact’ –
A number of different twin nationals have been put to dying since 2023.
Iran hanged Habib Chaab, an Iranian-Swedish nationwide, on a “terrorism” conviction final 12 months, drawing sturdy condemnation from Sweden.
It additionally executed Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian deputy defence minister who was granted British citizenship after leaving his put up, final 12 months after he was convicted of spying for Britain.
Like Sharmahd, two different critics of the Iranian management primarily based overseas have been “kidnapped”, Amnesty says.
Chaab disappeared in Turkey in 2020, it mentioned.
The earlier 12 months, dissident journalist Rouhollah Zam, who lived in France, was “kidnapped” throughout a go to to Iraq, in keeping with Amnesty. He was executed in Iran in 2020.
US-Iranian human rights lawyer Gissou Nia, of the Atlantic Council, mentioned the most recent execution had “a really chilling impact”.
“There are Iranian dissidents everywhere in the world… This primarily places a goal on all their backs,” she informed the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.
Aghakhani mentioned she had not been to Iran since 2022.
That 12 months the dying in custody of younger Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested for allegedly violating the nation’s strict costume code for ladies, sparked mass protests. However they have been violently crushed by Iran’s management.
“Amongst shut acquaintances we now assume twice earlier than travelling overseas, together with to nations in Iran’s neighbourhood,” she mentioned.
Ayda Hazijadeh, one other Franco-Iranian who’s a Socialist member of France’s parliament, mentioned she had not returned to her house nation for a decade.
“I take zero dangers. I would not tempt destiny,” she mentioned.
– ‘Hostages’ –
Iran, which doesn’t recognise twin citizenship, holds a number of Europeans in detention, most of them additionally Iranian.
Rights teams describe them as “hostages” used as leverage in negotiations.
A number of Westerners have been launched in casual prisoner swaps, however households usually really feel at midnight about progress in behind-the-scenes talks. Some have accused Western governments of being ineffective.
Germany’s International Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned the German embassy in Tehran had labored “tirelessly” on Sharmahd’s behalf.
However Mariam Claren — the daughter of German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi who has been held in Iran since 2020 — charged on X that his “state homicide may have been prevented if the German authorities had actually wished to”.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, referred to as on the worldwide group to sentence the “extrajudicial killing”.
Based on IHR, a minimum of 627 individuals have been executed this 12 months by Iran.
NGOs exterior Iran accuse Tehran of utilizing capital punishment as a device to instil worry.
The execution got here days after Israel carried out air strikes on army websites in Iran as Center East tensions soar.
Hazijadeh, the lawmaker, mentioned the rationale for the timing of the execution was unclear. “There are such a lot of regional, worldwide points at stake,” she mentioned.
“I do not assume the hostages have been deserted. States are doing their finest, however it’s extraordinarily tough to barter with the Iranian regime.”
