The Iranian judiciary confirmed on Monday it had executed Jamshid Sharmahd, a German-Iranian national and longtime California resident, years after he was abducted and taken captive for alleged “terrorism.”
Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February 2023 in relation to the bombing of a mosque in 2008 – a claim Iranian courts never backed with meaningful evidence and Sharmahd vehemently denied, the dissident outlet Iran International reported on Monday.
Sharmahd had reportedly been held captive after he was abducted during a layover in Dubai in 2020 while on a business trip.
“Without a doubt, the divine promise regarding the supporters of terrorism will be fulfilled, and this is a definite promise,” the judiciary reportedly said in the announcement of Sharmahd’s execution.
In the judiciary’s announcement of Sharmahd’s execution, he was accused of being “under orders from masters in Western intelligence agencies, the United States and the child-killing Zionist regime.”
Amnesty International, in its profile of Sharmahd as a political prisoner, noted that the California resident managed a dissident website that opposed Iran’s Islamist terror regime, likely attracting Tehran’s criminal behavior. The human rights group described the website, Tondar:
Jamshid Sharmahd hosted its radio and video broadcasts, including by reading out the website’s content, some of which was posted anonymously. The website included statements from the Kingdom Assembly of Iran claiming responsibility for explosions inside Iran. Jamshid Sharmahd has repeatedly denied his involvement in the violent acts attributed to him by the authorities.
Sharmahd’s daughter, Gazelle, previously told Fox News in an interview in August 2023, that her father had belonged “to a family of four generation around him of U.S. citizenship,” adding that he was a “law-abiding resident” who would have had United States citizenship if it were not “for the terrorists.”
“My dad chose the United States as his home, worked hard, followed all the rules, belongs to a family of four generations around him of U.S. citizenship, lived here for 20 years as a tax-paying, law-abiding resident and would already have his citizenship if it wasn’t for the terrorists and qualifies as a U.S. national under the Levinson law,” Gazelle told the outlet.
The Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act defines a “United States national” as being “a lawful permanent resident alien with significant ties to the United States,” according to the bill’s text.
On December 27, 2020, the Levinson Act was signed into law “as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (P.L. 116-260), codies key elements of hostage and wrongful detention policy and provides a framework for the Secretary of State to review cases and make wrongful detention determinations where appropriate,” according to the Department of State’s website.