The trial of an Iran-born German national jailed in Iran since 2020 is a sham, his family says, accusing Tehran of illegally abducting him abroad while he traveled in the Gulf region.
The family of Jamshid Sharmahd, 66, says that he was abducted by the Iranian security services in 2020 while in transit in Dubai and vehemently denies the accusations against him.
He is one of over a dozen Western nationals — including American, Austrian, British, French and German citizens — still held in Iran as talks to revive the 2015 deal over Tehran’s nuclear drive reach an acute phase.
Sharmahd, dressed in a striped Iranian prison uniform, appeared in court on Sunday charged with spreading “corruption on earth,” which carries the death penalty.
“This was pure propaganda, a show trial, a kangaroo court. It is very disturbing,” his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, who is based in the US, tells AFP.
“All of the charges are fabricated charges. They are scapegoating my dad who is innocent,” she adds.
Iran accuses Jamshid Sharmahd of being involved in the April 12, 2008, bombing of a mosque in Shiraz in southern Iran, which killed 14 people.
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