Iranian state media reported that Jamshid Sharmahd was executed on Monday after being convicted last year.
Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February 2023 following a conviction by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges linked to his involvement in a deadly 2008 attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people.
However, the formal conviction in Iran was for the much more vague Iranian criminal offense of spreading "corruption on Earth," a catch-all phrase the Islamic regime uses for an array of purported crimes, often related to religious values.
Iranian media including the legal news site Mizan reported that the execution took place on Monday morning.
Iran had also accused him of being in contact with "FBI and CIA officers" and of having "attempted to contact Israeli Mossad agents."
Iran Human Rights condemns Jamshid Sharmahd’s execution and calls for a strong reaction by the international community to his execution and the wave of executions in Iran.
IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The execution of Jamshid Sharmahd is a case of extrajudicial killing of a hostage aimed at covering up the recent failures of the hostage-takers of the Islamic Republic. Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates and unlawfully transferred to Iran, where he was sentenced to death without a fair trial by the Revolutionary Court. The entire process, including his arrest, conviction, and execution, constitutes a serious violation of international law. The international community must condemn the extrajudicial killing of Jamshid Sharmahd in the strongest possible terms.”
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) strongly condemns the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd. “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. “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.
Jamshid Sharmahd was a German-Iranian dissident activist who was kidnapped on a layover in Dubai when flying to the United States, his country of residence, from India. He last spoke to his wife on 28 July 2020. On 1 August, Minister of Intelligence and Security Mahmoud Alavi announced on state television that Jamshid Sharmahd had been arrested “following a complex operation” and aired a video of him stating his name while blindfolded with a black cloth. Charges related to a 2010 Mosque bombing, for which three men had already been executed, were brought against him.
After being held in pre-trial detention for over a year and a half, his first hearing was held on 6 February 2022. Presided by Judge Salavati, a “hanging judge” on the US sanctions list, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court held multiple public hearings on the accusations of “efsad- fil-arz by planning and directing terrorist acts”, including the 2010 bombing. He was sentenced to death on 21 February 2023. Jamshid was held in solitary confinement following his arrest and denied legal representation, due process and the right to a fair trial. The confirmation of his sentence by the Supreme Court was announced by authorities on 26 April 2023.
Second publication by courtesy of DW, Iran Human Rights
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