Germany, Iran fight over execution of Jamshid Sharmahd

 

Jamshid Sharmahd was not even given the opportunity to defend himself in court against the accusations made against him,” Scholz wrote late on Monday

 

 

Admin I Tuesday, October 29, 2024

 

BERLIN – German lawmakers have condemned the execution in Iran of German-Iranian dual national Jamshid Sharmahd on terrorism charges and warned of diplomatic consequences. The condemnation came just as Iran has defended the  execution of Sharmahd.

“Sharmahd openly and unashamedly led a terrorist attack on a MOSQUE that killed 14 innocent people — including women and children,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on the platform X on Tuesday.

Sharmahd was executed on Monday morning, according to the Iranian judiciary’s news site Misan. The German government had strongly criticized his sentence and long called for Sharmahd’s release. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday sharply condemned the execution, saying Germany had sent a high-level team to Iran several times.

“In doing so, we repeatedly made it unequivocally clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen would have serious consequences,” she said, adding that Iran’s judiciary had refused to grant consular access to Sharmahd.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also condemned the execution “in the strongest terms.” Scholz called the execution a “scandal,” in a post on social media platform X.

“Jamshid Sharmahd was not even given the opportunity to defend himself in court against the accusations made against him,” Scholz wrote late on Monday.

“The German government has repeatedly and intensively supported Mr Sharmahd. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family.”

The leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats Friedrich Merz condemned the execution as an “atrocious crime” in a post on X and called for the Iranian ambassador in Berlin to be expelled. Merz added that Germany’s diplomatic relations with Iran should be downgraded to the level of chargé d’affaires.

The chairwoman of the Bundestag Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, Renata Alt, called the execution “terrible news” and said it was “further proof that no constructive negotiations are possible with this terrorist regime.”

Sharmahd was born in the Iranian capital Tehran, grew up in Germany and most recently lived in the United States.He was reportedly arrested by Iranian intelligence services in Dubai in 2020 and brought to Iran. Since then, he has been imprisoned in Tehran.

A revolutionary court ruled in February 2023 that he was responsible for a terrorist attack and also charged him with cooperating with foreign intelligence services.

This was likely linked to his involvement in the Iranian exile opposition group Tondar (Thunder). The Iranian government accuses the organization of being responsible for an attack in 2008 in the city of Shiraz, which killed several people.

Sharmahd’s family and human rights activists – including his daughter Gazelle, who lives in the United States – vehemently rejected the accusations, which could not be verified.

The Supreme Court upheld the sentence against Sharmahd in April 2023. The judge presiding over his case, Abolghassem Salawati, is known as the “judge of death” and has been sanctioned by the European Union and the United States. Sharmahd’s daughter had regularly accused the German Foreign Office of inaction in her father’s case.

Relations between Iran and Germany had already deteriorated following the wave of protests in Iran in 2022 and the government’s subsequent violent crackdown. In Iran, death sentences are usually carried out by hanging. Executions of Western foreigners in the country are extremely rare.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government has defended the execution of the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd.

“Sharmahd openly and unashamedly led a terrorist attack on a MOSQUE that killed 14 innocent people — including women and children,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on the platform X on Tuesday.

“More than 200 were injured. The evidence is public and available for all to see,” he added. “A German passport does not provide impunity to anyone, let alone a terrorist criminal.”

Addressing German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, he wrote, “Your government is [an] accomplice in the ongoing Israeli genocide.”

He further added: “Look around. Even your own people ridicule your arrogant human rights claims.” The Iranian judiciary announced Sharmahd’s execution on Monday evening. In early 2023, he had been sentenced to death in a controversial trial following accusations of terrorism. Relatives had vehemently rejected the accusations.