Iran’s Execution of Iranian-German Dissident Jamshid Sharmahd is State-Sanctioned Murder
Executed Dual National Was Abducted, Tortured, and Convicted without Due Process
Countries Must Join Together to Stop Iran’s Hostage Taking
October 28, 2024 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) strongly condemns the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German dual national and U.S. resident, by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Monday, October 28. This state-sanctioned killing targeted a dissident who was unjustly detained, tortured, and deprived of his due process and fair trial rights.
“By executing Jamshid Sharmahd, the Islamic Republic has once again shown its contempt for human rights and due process and its willingness to carry out state-sanctioned murder to silence dissent. This brutal killing is intended to send a message of terror to Iranians abroad and to the international community,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of CHRI.
The Iranian government continues to abduct foreign and dual nationals and tries to use them as bargaining chips in order to obtain concessions from other countries, including France, the U.S., Germany, Sweden, and Canada.
“Without effective multilateral action, the Islamic Republic will continue to take dual and foreign nationals hostage, and then cut side deals with individual countries for their release,” said Ghaemi.
CHRI urges all governments to join in coordinated, multilateral responses to this outrageously unlawful behavior, and defend justice, the rights of dissidents, and the safety of dual nationals worldwide. Specifically, governments should join the dozens of countries who have endorsed the Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations, initiated by Canada in February 2021, to respond to the Islamic Republic’s continued use of hostage-taking.
Sharmahd, 69, was kidnapped by agents of the Islamic Republic in 2020 in the UAE and forcibly taken to Iran. He was subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, and ill-treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, forced confessions, limited phone contact with family, and denial of critical medical care despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other serious health conditions.
Sharmahd was denied access to an independent lawyer of his choosing and the right to a full defense during his trial. He was sentenced to death on the charge of “corruption on earth,” a vague political charge used by the Islamic Republic to prosecute dissidents and critics of the state, and accused of “planning and directing terrorist acts” following a trial that relied on confessions obtained under torture.
Both Sharmahd and his family consistently denied the allegations. He had previously been targeted in an Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil in 2009.
Sharmahd is one of several Iranian dissidents abducted by Iranian agents and brought back to Iran in recent years. His case closely echoes that of the France-based dissident Ruhollah Zam, who was abducted by Iranian agents in Iraq in 2019 and executed in December 2020 after a sham trial.
Iran Using Regional Tensions to Lash Out at Critics
The Iranian government had previously accused Sharmahd of being “supported by the intelligence services of the USA and Israel.” CHRI is deeply concerned that the Islamic Republic is exploiting regional tensions to target its critics.
“The international community and governments worldwide should not be distracted from the human rights crisis in Iran and must stand firmly against the Islamic Republic’s escalating executions and abductions of foreign and dual nationals,” said Ghaemi.
