Iran on Monday executed 69-year-old German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd after years in captivity, media within the Islamic Republic stated, sparking outrage in Germany and past.
Berlin known as the execution a “scandal” and warned of “critical penalties” for Iran’s “inhumane regime”, whereas a Norway-based human rights group labelled the execution the “extrajudicial killing of a hostage”.
Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, was seized by Iranian authorities in 2020 whereas travelling by the United Arab Emirates, in accordance with his household.
Iran, which doesn’t recognise twin citizenship, introduced his arrest after a “advanced operation”, with out specifying how, the place or when he was seized.
Sharmahd was sentenced to demise in February 2023 for the capital offence of “corruption on Earth”, a sentence later confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court docket.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan web site stated on Monday that “the demise sentence of Jamshid Sharmahd… was carried out this morning”.
He had been convicted of enjoying a job in a 2008 mosque bombing within the southern metropolis of Shiraz, through which 14 folks have been killed and 300 wounded.
His household have lengthy maintained that Sharmahd was harmless.
Sharmahd was additionally accused of main the Tondar group, which goals to topple the Islamic Republic. Iran courses it as a terrorist organisation.
Sharmahd’s daughter Gazelle stated in a publish on X that she was ready for the German and US governments to supply “concrete proof” that her father had been killed.
If that’s the case, his physique ought to be introduced residence “instantly” and the Iranian authorities ought to face “extreme punishment”, she stated.
– ‘Scandal’ –
Germany’s Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock stated the killing “exhibits as soon as once more what sort of inhumane regime guidelines in Tehran: a regime that makes use of demise in opposition to its youth, its personal inhabitants and international nationals”.
She added that Berlin had repeatedly made clear “that the execution of a German nationwide would have critical penalties”.
“This underlines the truth that nobody is protected below the brand new authorities both,” she stated in reference to the administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was inaugurated in July.
Baerbock expressed her “heartfelt sympathy” for Sharmahd’s household, “with whom we have now at all times been in shut contact”, and stated the German embassy in Tehran had labored “tirelessly” on his behalf.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz additionally condemned the execution, calling it a “scandal” and including that “Jamshid Sharmahd didn’t even obtain the chance to defend himself in opposition to the fees on the trial”.
Nonetheless, Gazelle Sharmahd accused each the German and US governments of “abandoning” her father in negotiations and stated that the household had been ignored.
The director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, known as the execution “a case of extrajudicial killing of a hostage geared toward masking up the latest failures of the hostage-takers of the Islamic Republic”.
“Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped within the United Arab Emirates and unlawfully transferred to Iran, the place he was sentenced to demise with no truthful trial,” stated Amiry-Moghaddam, whose group carefully tracks executions in Iran.
The European Heart for Constitutional and Human Rights stated: “The illegal abduction of Sharmahd, his subsequent torture in custody, the unfair present trial and at present’s execution are exemplary of the numerous crimes of the Iranian regime.”
– Device for worry –
Sharmahd grew up in an Iranian-German household and moved to California in 2003, the place he was accused of constructing statements hostile to each Iran and Islam on tv.
Mizan stated Sharmahd was “a felony terrorist” who “was hosted by america in addition to European nations and was working below the advanced safety of their intelligence companies”.
Iran carries out the second highest variety of executions worldwide per 12 months after China, in accordance with human rights teams together with Amnesty Worldwide.
At the very least 627 folks have been executed this 12 months alone by Iran, in accordance with IHR. Rights teams accuse the authorities of utilizing capital punishment as a device to instill worry all through society.
A number of different Europeans are nonetheless being held in Iran, together with no less than three French residents.
European Parliament member Hannah Neumann, who chairs the meeting’s Iran delegation, known as for a complete change within the EU’s coverage in direction of Tehran, the Bild every day reported.
“There have been some voices who needed to attend and see how the regime would develop after Pezeshkian’s election,” Neumann stated. “This horrible execution exhibits us clearly how we must always decide this new authorities.”
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