Silence, that’s what Gazelle Sharmahd last heard from Iran. She knew that on January 10, a revolutionary court in Tehran had conducted the final day of a show trial against her father, Jamshid Sharmahd. It was chaired by Abolqasem Salavati, known as the “Judge of Death” and sanctioned by the US and European Union. But what judgment he made about the 67-year-old German-Iranian has so far remained open.
She always had the scenario of a possible death sentence in her head. It was not until mid-January that she sent a video message to Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “I would at least like to talk to my father before he is executed and murdered.” The cruel certainty came on Tuesday: According to the Mizan news agency, which belongs to the Iranian judiciary, the judges imposed the death penalty on Sharmahd.
According to the Iranian state media, he was found guilty of “corruption on earth,” a collective offense punishable by death that the regime often uses to take action against political dissidents. Specifically, the judges charged him with planning and directing 23 terrorist attacks, five of which were carried out. The most serious of these is a bomb attack on a mosque in the city of Shiraz in April 2008, which killed 14 people. In addition, as leader of the monarchist opposition group “Tondar”, which means thunder, he was in contact with the secret services of the USA and Israel.
Sharmahd has been a German citizen since 1995
Sharmahd’s family has always denied the allegations. He only created Tondar’s website and moderated the group’s radio and video broadcasts, also known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran. She aims to revive the Persian Empire of 1400 years ago. According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, the group is also trying to use violence to bring about an end to the Islamic Republic.
Sharmahd came to Germany at the age of seven and his children grew up in Hanover. The software engineer, who worked for Siemens at times, has also been a German citizen since 1995. In 2003 he moved to the United States with his family and had permanent residency there. He lived in Los Angeles, where he joined the exile opposition.
Jamshid Sharmahd taken on February 6th.
(Photo: Koosha Mahshid Falahi/Mizan News Agency/AFP)
Berlin expels Iranian diplomats
His case has the potential to drastically worsen the already tense relationship between Iran and Western countries, especially relations between Tehran and Berlin. In response to the death sentence on Wednesday, the German government expelled two members of the Iranian embassy. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock explained that she had summoned the charge d’affaires of the Iranian embassy in view of the death sentence. Such an appointment is considered a sharp diplomatic device. He had been informed “that we do not accept the massive violation of the rights of a German national,” the Foreign Minister said. Baerbock emphasized: “We call on Iran to revoke the death sentence for Jamshid Sharmahd and to allow him a fair and constitutional appeal process.”
Baerbock had already declared on Tuesday: “The death sentence against Jamshid Sharmahd is absolutely unacceptable. We call on Iran to remedy these shortcomings in the appeals process, to correct the sentence accordingly and to refrain from the death penalty.” According to the Iranian judiciary, the verdict can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Baerbock went on to say that not only is the death penalty cruel, inhuman and degrading. Sharmahd also never had a fair trial. He was denied a freely chosen legal adviser. In addition, the public display of the accused was tantamount to a prejudice. Sharmahd had been shown on television in a blue convict suit; Previously, state media had released video footage of an alleged confession, believed to have been extracted under torture, and footage after he was taken to Tehran, allegedly by Revolutionary Guard agents.
Western diplomats accuse Tehran of “hostage diplomacy.”
Since the arrest, which came about under highly questionable circumstances, the Federal Foreign Office has campaigned repeatedly and at a high level for Sharmahd. Iran ignored these intensive efforts. According to his family, Sharmahd was kidnapped from a hotel room by the Iranian secret service at the end of July 2020 during a trip from Frankfurt to Mumbai with a stopover in Dubai, first to Oman and then taken to Iran.
Gazelle Sharmahd had appealed to Scholz and Baerbock via social media to use “all possible levers” to prevent their father from being sentenced to death. Shortly before the last day of the trial, CDU chairman Friedrich Merz assumed a “political sponsorship” for Sharmahd and demanded “clarification of the state of health, the prison conditions and the circumstances that led to the arrest” from the Iranian authorities and courts. Merz announced the verdict against Sharmahd on Tuesday on twitter as an “affront”. He called for diplomatic relations with Iran to be downgraded to chargé d’affaires.
However, the Foreign Office had previously campaigned in vain for Sharmahd, who has spent more than 900 days in solitary and solitary confinement. Iran refused the German diplomats consular support and access to the trial appointments. Iran does not recognize dual nationalities and treats people born in Iran, and often their descendants, as citizens of the Islamic Republic. The Federal Foreign Office therefore expressly warns dual nationals against traveling to Iran.
Western diplomats accuse the hard-line regime in Iran of “hostage diplomacy.” Iran is trying to build up a bargaining chip by arresting foreigners and harsh sentences against them. They are generally used as a means of political leverage. Also on Tuesday, an Austrian was sentenced to life imprisonment in Iran for alleged espionage. However, Tehran is also trying to free the regime’s henchmen who have been convicted abroad by means of prisoner exchanges.
One speculation with regard to the nuclear program is that the regime may be considering forcing a multi-element deal from the West. IAEA inspectors recently found uranium particles with an enrichment level of 84 percent, almost the level required for weapons. Amnesty International demanded that the German government now publicly put pressure on Iran instead of pursuing quiet diplomacy. Gazelle Sharmahd would probably agree – she hadn’t commented on the verdict against her father until the early evening.