Iran confirms death sentence of German dual national

German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd will face the death penalty after the sentence was upheld by Iran's top court on Wednesday.

"The sentence has been confirmed by the Supreme Court. After the lower court is notified, actions will subsequently be taken to implement the Supreme Court's decision," said judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi.

Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February following a conviction by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court of involvement in a deadly 2008 attack in Shiraz that killed 14 people.

The accusation could not be independently verified.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Iran's decision was "unacceptable," adding that the 68-year-old "at no time had even the semblance of a fair trial." She called on Iran to "immediately reverse this arbitrary sentence."

Baerbock said Germany's ambassador in Iran had cut short a business trip and was rushed back to Tehran to intervene with authorities.

What are Iran's accusations against Sharmahd?

Sharmahd was arrested in 2020 on allegations of being the leader of "the terrorist Tondar group, who directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America," according to the Iranian intelligence ministry at the time.

Tondar group is based in Los Angeles and says it seeks to restore the Western-backed monarchy that ruled Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Prior to his detention, the 68-year old Sharmahd had been residing in California. He was given a death penalty in February and accused of being in contact with "FBI and CIA officers" and of having "attempted to contact Israeli Mossad agents".

His family denied that Sharmahd was involved in any attacks and was only a spokesperson for Tondar. They have said that Sharmahd was kidnapped by the Iranian authorities in Dubai and brought to Iran.

Sharmahd has 'no lawyer ... no access to anybody,' daughter says

Western countries including Germany need to exercise "serious pressure" and "escalation" against the Iranian authorities to put an end to human rights violations, said the defendant's daughter Gazelle Sharmahd. 

Speaking to DW on Thursday, Gazelle said she had not spoken to her father for years and that he was in solitary confinement with "no lawyer ... no access to anybody," and no access to his medication for Parkinson's disease.

"We know that they have taken away all of his rights" she said. "He has lost 40 pounds of weight. He has lost all of his teeth... We know they're torturing him. And now that they've tortured him for two and a half years, they want to take away his life."

She said it was important to note that her father was not convicted of committing a terrorist crime, but of "corruption on Earth."

This phrase uses language from the Koran and is often used as the Islamic regime's catch-all term for behavior it dislikes, including dissidents or more recently protesters. 

Gazelle said that she was "still under shock, but trying to get through this day," since the confirmation of her father's death sentence.

Death sentences to dual nationals

In response to the death sentence, Germany ordered two employees of the Iranian Embassy in Berlin to leave the country . Last month, Iran also expelled two German diplomats.

According to the judiciary, three dual nationals including Sharmahd have either been given the death penalty or executed since the start of the year.

In January, Iran executed British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari on spying charges, provoking international uproar.

vh/jcg (Reuters, AFP, AP)

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