Germany’s foreign minister is calling on Iran to reverse a death sentence handed down to Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German dual citizen and opposition figure accused of masterminding deadly attacks.
German officials say they were not allowed to attend the hearing at which the sentence against Sharmahd was upheld.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock calls the verdict “completely unacceptable.”
“At no point did Jamshid Sharmahd have even the beginnings of a fair trial,” she writes on Twitter. “We call on Iran to immediately reverse this arbitrary verdict.”
In this file photo taken on February 6, 2022, Jamshid Sharmahd (L front), who is accused by the Iranian government of being a leader of the US-based “Tondar terrorist group” behind a deadly attack in Iran in 2008, attends the first hearing of his trial in Tehran. (Koosha MAHSHID FALAHI/MIZAN NEWS AGENCY/AFP)
Germany’s ambassador to Iran is on his way back to Tehran from a work trip to intervene on Sharmahd’s behalf, Baerbock added.
Sharmahd had been residing in Glendora, California, prior to his detention. Iran accuses the 67-year-old of leading the armed wing of a group committed to restoring the Western-backed monarchy that ruled Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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