Gazelle Sharmahd is the daughter of Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen who was abducted in 2020 and has been held incommunicado in Iran for more than 900 days, facing the death penalty. An Interview.
First of all... Hats off to your strength to tirelessly attend so many interviews these days to draw attention to your father's situation.
I am very happy to talk about it because the more I talk about it, the better it is for my father and for all of us.
Let's keep it simple: Your father is a German citizen and was on a business trip in July 2020 when he made a stopover in Dubai. From there, he was abducted to Oman and taken to Iran. Is that correct?
Correct. My father came to Germany at a young age, received citizenship here, and always rejected Iranian citizenship. He has also never traveled to Iran in all these years. But the Islamic Republic says he is an Iranian citizen because he was born there. But he never had a passport. He is not a dual national. He is a German citizen.
Do you remember the moment when you found out about the kidnapping?
I will never forget that moment. It was on a day in the summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. I work as a nurse and had that day off. Five months pregnant at the time, I was finally going to rest at home that day - when I was woken up by my husband, saying, "They've got your dad." That's all he had to explain. At that moment, I knew what happened. Later, I saw the video that the regime had released of my father - blindfolded, face swollen, showing signs of torture and a forced confession that he had been coerced into making. I couldn't believe all this at first because the regime had been persecuting my father for 16 years, but then it had actually happened that they were able to kidnap him abroad.
How did you feel?
It was an absolutely surreal feeling. I still can't put it into words. Your whole world is falling apart. You can't believe what you're seeing and you keep asking yourself: how can it be that a terrorist regime can kidnap someone from the other side of the world and then put them on display like that? In addition, there was an official statement from the regime that they had finally captured my father. They openly and unabashedly admitted that they had brought my father to Iran in a "complex operation" to demonstrate their power. They are not even ashamed to admit the terrorism they are engaged in. I sat there thinking I was dreaming.
Have you had any personal contact since then?
There was no sign of life from him for the first two months. After that, he called my mother for the first time. For the first year, I was also allowed to talk to him on the phone every month or two. But these are not normal phone calls. The conversations are all controlled, the guards sit next to him and he can only say what he is allowed to say. You had to listen a lot between the lines to find out what happened to him and what he really wanted to tell you. Those phone calls don't exist anymore. They were also never for the purpose of my father being allowed to call his relatives, but were only meant to get us on the other end of the line to say things that could have been used against my father. For example, it was to get me to write a letter confirming that my father was a terrorist leader, it was to get access to our computer software and to pressure us.
Do you know where he is being held?
No, we don't know to this day. Most political prisoners in Iran are kidnapped, it is system to keep the relatives in the dark about where the detainees are, how they are doing and if they are still alive. This ordeal is purely intentional - partly because the regime itself is paranoid about learning where political prisoners are and trying to free them.
What exactly is he accused of?
We know very well when the terrorist attacks on my father began. It started with a website that my father had built as a software engineer for people in Iran to have a voice there. This was in 2006, before people were active on social media. On the website, people in Iran could upload their opinions anonymously and without any censorship. My father had made everything technically possible for them, so that they had a mouthpiece to the world through this site to draw attention to themselves. And he made a radio broadcast about what was reported on this site. Because of that, the regime made him a terrorist, an agent, or a spy. Portraying activists as criminals is, after all, the number one step that the regime takes. Then, in 2007, they already broke into our office to collect propaganda material. If they broke the name, it continues with death threats. And then if the person still doesn't stop, like my father, it continues with assassinations. In 2009, they sent an agent to kill my father in Los Angeles.
He was already giving people a voice back then. That's all there is to it, so to speak?
That was a powerful weapon, even back then, because my father made the conditions in Iran visible - that's why the regime hates it so much, which is what we're doing right now. We are collectively giving people a voice so that the world can see what the regime is doing to them. And it's also now cracking down on activists like Masih Alinejad, for example, to demonstrate power and to stir up fear. Anyone who is critical and loud and makes the conditions in Iran visible is a target of the regime. And that's what I want to demonstrate with my father's case: The regime is on the heels of its critics everywhere. Until today. That is their terror message.
And it seems to be working.
Yes. There are countless people whom the regime has killed, kidnapped, tortured or silenced through intimidation.
What is the current status? In January, another trial day was scheduled...
You have to put the word "trial" in quotation marks. This has nothing to do with a trial as we know it in a constitutional state. There is no real judge and no defense attorney, but a regime agent posing as a lawyer. There is no free press and no proper court. Even the show trials before this date were staged. Only the press loyal to the regime was allowed to carry out propaganda. All of this is theater - not a trial.
And the date in January?
It was scheduled as the last show trial. The charge was "corruption on earth," which carries a death sentence. And even before the verdict, we were unabashedly told that this verdict would come. They wanted to execute my father and were just looking for a suitable reason - but this show trial was different because shortly before this date, CDU leader Friedrich Merz took over the political sponsorship of my father and publicly committed himself to watching the trial closely. And poof, the doors were closed. There were no media reports, no photos, no testimony and no verdict.
Which shows the immense impact political sponsorships have.
One hundred percent. We have to be loud and make the machinations visible, then something will happen. Last year, my father was allowed to call my mother twice. Each time was after we had made a public case for his case. Public relations work by politicians, sponsors or journalists should never be underestimated. It has a 1:1 effect on the situation of political prisoners. If people look there and put pressure on them, then something will happen. And Friedrich Merz is very involved there as a sponsor. Behind the scenes and in public. That is noticeable in Iran, and I appreciate it very much. As direct contacts, these sponsors are much more concrete than vague diplomatic efforts with the Islamic government, which are practically impossible to understand. The direct targeting is important. That's why the sentence against my father was not pronounced, even though we had already been told that he would be sentenced and executed within seven days.
What about the German government or the Foreign Office? After all, they would have to officially stand up for a German citizen.
They are campaigning with "high priority," as they say - for my father as well as other German citizens, they say. But little has happened so far. My father has been in solitary confinement for more than 900 days, he is alone, is still being tortured, has lost 20 kilos. Almost all his teeth have fallen out, he can no longer walk properly. And he is also denied his Parkinson's medication, which can lead to cardiac arrest. He's been through eight show trials - without a lawyer, without contact with us, and without us knowing where he is. I wonder what happens when people say that they are working for him as a priority? Why was it not possible to at least get him out of solitary confinement or to allow him to talk to us on the phone? It can't be that Germany has so little influence and can achieve so little.
Has contact been made with the Iranian ambassador?
Friedrich Merz did.
So just recently.
Yes. I don't know what the government is waiting for. Does a German citizen have to be executed before they realize that they have to exert pressure and before they realize that what happened to my father can happen to any other citizen? Even outside Iran. How do they protect us from this danger that we can be kidnapped and abducted? After my father, there have been other attempts to silence activists with kidnapping or attacks, just recently it became known in the case of Masih Alinejad. Are we not allowed to rely on our governments to stand up for freedom, security and human rights? What more needs to happen?
What do you think is the reason for that?
I think it's a mixture of the political course they're taking with the regime, economic networks, business relationships and fear that keeps them from taking the side of those affected. I cannot otherwise explain that the West, with the EU, the U.S. and Canada, defines the Islamic Republic as a terrorist state and has allowed it to exist for 44 years, even though everyone knows and says what the Islamic Republic is doing. That cannot be the case. It is more plausible that the regime has been kept by the West all these years. We still see that their hand is being extended, if only in terms of the nuclear agreement that the West is holding on to - even though it is absolutely clear that the Islamic Republic wants to build the bomb. There is also still talk and weighing about the listing of the IRGC, even though it is perfectly clear that it is a terrorist organization. We are not blind and stupid after all. Of course oil, lobbying and economic relations play a role - and of course fear, because the regime is involved everywhere. Anything else would be absurd. This course is intentional. With one difference.
Which?
This injustice has been visible to the whole world for a good six months. So you can no longer hide behind your stance.
What do you expect?
The realization that what has been done so far has brought nothing. This political course has failed and I would like the West to change it and support the people of Iran. They will get rid of this regime one way or another, when is a question of time - but it will happen. And it is important that the West, in its solidarity, sides with those who really represent the Iranians. It has to finally understand what is happening in Iran right now: The people want these tyrants out of the way. And he will succeed in doing that. And the people will not forget who is on their side. There is no neutrality anymore.
Are you also afraid for yourself?
I am aware of the danger. I know that I should not travel and that I have to be careful because I am loud and my life is also in danger. But this danger is not new for me. I have known it for 16 years because we are just my father's family. At some point you get used to it. And when I see here in my security the people in Iran who are no longer afraid to stand in front of the regime and risk their lives for it, when you hear the new powerful slogans that they are no longer even afraid to die and no longer allow themselves to be intimidated, then I am all the more not afraid. Because the real courage, that is shown by the people there in the country.
In addition to Jamshid Sharmahd, there are at least two other Germans in Iranian custody. Nahid Taghavi from Cologne has been in prison for more than two years. A 66-year-old German tourist in Iran was arrested last year for allegedly taking photographs in restricted zones.