BERLIN: The daughter of German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, sentenced to death in Iran, is demanding that Berlin make a deal with Tehran to save her father, reported German news agency (dpa).
“In the case of my father, who is now about to be executed, there is no other way but to make a deal with the (Iranian) regime,” Gazelle Sharmahd told Welt-TV on Wednesday evening from Los Angeles.
She said the Iranian government had told her family from the start that they would make her father appear to be a terrorist so that they could exchange him.
“They want their terrorist out of Belgium. They tell us that crystal clear every time,” she said.
In February, a revolutionary court held the 68-year-old responsible for a terrorist attack, among other things. Family members and human rights activists called the accusations baseless and criticised the trial as grossly unfair. His death sentence was confirmed at the end of April by the Iranian Supreme Court.
Gazelle Sharmahd told Welt-TV that her family did not know where her father was, or how he was doing.
“All we know is that he has been tortured in solitary confinement for over 1,000 days.”
Her father said the regime wanted to “hang him from a crane in public”.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Tehran to reverse the “absolutely unacceptable” and arbitrary verdict.
Gazelle Sharmahd said Baerbock’s strong condemnation of Iran will not move the regime.
“It doesn’t work. You might as well talk to my plant here. The regime in Tehran only understand pressure,” she said.
“They don’t understand any other language. It’s like IS, like al-Qaeda,” referring to Islamic extremist organisations.
Jamshid Sharmahd was arrested by Iranian intelligence in Dubai in 2020 and brought to Iran. He has been detained in Tehran ever since. Previously, he had lived in the United States for years.
Jamshid Sharmahd came to Germany with his parents as a child and has a German passport. However, he was born in Tehran and thus automatically has Iranian citizenship.
In the US, he was involved in the exile monarchist opposition group Tondar, which seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic and restore Iranian monarchy. – BERNAMA-dpa
