Iran has executed a 69-year-old German-Iranian political scientist after years in captivity, sparking outrage in Germany and past.
Berlin warned of “critical penalties” for Iran’s “inhumane regime” after Jamshid Sharmahd was put to loss of life on Monday, whereas a Norway-based human rights group labelled the execution the “extrajudicial killing of a hostage”.
Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, was seized by Iranian authorities in 2020 whereas travelling by way of the United Arab Emirates, in keeping with his household.
Iran, which doesn’t recognise twin citizenship, introduced his arrest after a “advanced operation”, with out specifying how, the place or when he was seized.
Sharmahd was sentenced to loss of life in February 2023 for the capital offence of “corruption on Earth”, a sentence later confirmed by Iran’s supreme court docket.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan web site mentioned on Monday that “the loss of life sentence of Jamshid Sharmahd … was carried out this morning”.
He had been convicted of taking part in a task in a 2008 mosque bombing within the southern metropolis of Shiraz, wherein 14 folks had been killed and 300 wounded.
His household have lengthy maintained that Sharmahd was harmless.
Sharmahd was additionally accused of main the Tondar group, which goals to topple the Islamic Republic, and is assessed as a terror organisation by Iran.
Germany’s international minister, Annalena Baerbock, mentioned the killing “exhibits as soon as once more what sort of inhumane regime guidelines in Tehran: a regime that makes use of loss of life in opposition to its youth, its personal inhabitants and international nationals”.
She added that Berlin had repeatedly made clear “that the execution of a German nationwide would have critical penalties”.
“This underlines the truth that nobody is protected below the brand new authorities both,” she mentioned in reference to the administration of president Masoud Pezeshkian, who was inaugurated in July.
Baerbock expressed her “heartfelt sympathy” for Sharmahd’s household, “with whom we’ve got all the time been in shut contact”, and mentioned the German embassy in Tehran had labored “tirelessly” on his behalf.
Nonetheless, Mariam Claren – the daughter of one other German-Iranian detained by Tehran – charged on X that “this state homicide may have been prevented if the German authorities had actually needed to”.
The director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, known as the execution “a case of extrajudicial killing of a hostage aimed toward masking up the current failures of the hostage-takers of the Islamic Republic”.
“Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped within the United Arab Emirates and unlawfully transferred to Iran, the place he was sentenced to loss of life with out a truthful trial,” mentioned Amiry-Moghaddam, whose group intently tracks executions in Iran.
The European Middle for Constitutional and Human Rights mentioned: “The illegal abduction of Sharmahd, his subsequent torture in custody, the unfair present trial and as we speak’s execution are exemplary of the numerous crimes of the Iranian regime.”
Sharmahd grew up in an Iranian-German household and moved to California in 2003, the place he was accused of constructing statements hostile to each Iran and Islam on tv.
Mizan mentioned Sharmahd was “a legal terrorist” who “was hosted by the USA in addition to European international locations and was working below the advanced safety of their intelligence providers”.
Iran carries out the second highest variety of executions worldwide per yr after China, in keeping with human rights teams together with Amnesty Worldwide.
Not less than 627 folks have been executed this yr alone by Iran, in keeping with IHR. Rights teams accuse the authorities of utilizing capital punishment as a software to instil concern all through society.
A number of different Europeans are nonetheless being held in Iran, together with a minimum of three French residents.
European parliament member Hannah Neumann, who chairs the meeting’s Iran delegation, known as for a complete change within the EU’s coverage in direction of Tehran, the Bild every day reported.
“There have been some voices who needed to attend and see how the regime would develop after Pezeshkian’s election,” Neumann mentioned. “This horrible execution exhibits us clearly how we should always choose this new authorities.”
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