By james art The judicial news agency Mizan reported that his execution took place on Monday morning.
Iran accused Mr. Sharmahd, who lived in Glendora, California, of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people and wounding more than 200 others, and of planning other attacks through the little-known Kingdom of Iran Assembly and her Tondar fighter wing.
Iran also accused Mr Sharmahd of “revealing classified information” about missile sites of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard during a television program in 2017.
“No doubt the divine promise regarding the supporters of terrorism will be fulfilled and that is a definite promise,” the judiciary said in announcing his execution.
His family contested the charges brought against him by the Iranian regime.
They have worked for years to see him released and are now calling on Tehran to hand over his remains to his relatives.
Sharmahd’s daughter Gazelle criticized both the US and Germany for letting her father down on social media.
She said no evidence was given to show her father had been executed and called for his body to be handed over immediately.
Ms Sharmahd said her family would bury him according to Zoroastrian customs if he had indeed been executed.
“This must have immediate and unmistakable dire consequences for them now,” she wrote of Iran.
She described her father’s execution as “revenge for Israeli strikes against the regime.”
Our beloved hero and father of Iran Jimmy June,
As I wait in silence, our connection goes beyond words.
The German @AuswaertigesAmt and the USA @StateDept will be talking to me shortly and I will assess whether they have any evidence that the cowardly jihadists of the occupying Islamic regime have… pic.twitter.com/1stqgy3DW4
— Gazelle غزاله شارمهد (@GazelleSharmahd) October 28, 2024
Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, who US prosecutors say Iran also tried to kill in the US, praised Sharmahd’s daughter for her advocacy for her father.
“The Islamic Republic does not understand the language of peace or diplomacy,” Ms Alinejad wrote to X.
“Their language is that of hostage-taking, execution, murder and murder.”
Mr Sharmahd was in Dubai in 2020 trying to travel to India for a business deal involving his software company. He was hoping to get a connecting flight despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic disrupting global travel at the time.
His family last heard from him on July 28, 2020.
It is not clear how the abduction took place, but tracking data shows his mobile phone traveled south from Dubai to the city of Al Ain on July 29, crossed the border into Oman and stayed overnight near an Islamic school in the border town of Al-Buraimi .
On July 30, tracking data showed the cellphone traveled to the Omani port city of Sohar, where the signal stopped.
Two days later, Iran announced it had captured Mr Sharmahd in a “sophisticated operation”. The Ministry of Intelligence released a photo of him blindfolded.
Germany expelled two Iranian diplomats in 2023 over Mr Sharmahd’s death sentence. The US State Department called Iran’s treatment of Mr Sharmahd “reprehensible” and described him as facing a “sham trial”.
“We have long made clear that we oppose the way Iran carries out executions, often in ways that fundamentally violate human rights,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock condemned “the assassination of Jamshid Sharmahd by the Iranian regime in the strongest possible way.”
Mr. Sharmahd “was abducted to Iran from Dubai, held for years without a fair trial, and has now been murdered,” she said in a statement.
“We have made it very clear to Tehran on many occasions that the execution of a German citizen would have severe consequences,” Ms Berbock said. She did not specify what they might be.
Amnesty International said the proceedings against Mr Sharmahd had been a “grossly unfair trial” as he had been denied access to an independent lawyer and “the right to defend himself”.
“The government-appointed lawyer said that without payment of $250,000 (£192,598) from the family, he would not defend Jamshid Sharmahd in court and would just ‘sit there,'” Amnesty said in a report on his case.
However, Amnesty noted that Mr Sharmahd operated a website for the Royal Assembly of Iran and its militant wing Tondar, which included claims of “responsibility for explosions in Iran”, although he has repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks.
Mr. Sharmahd was targeted by Iran before his abduction. A 2010 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks identified Mr Sharmahd as an Iranian target in California, with an operative trying to hire an assassin to kill him.
“This marks a clear escalation in the regime’s attempts to intimidate critics beyond its borders and may have a chilling effect on journalists, academics and others in the West who until recently did not feel physically threatened by the regime,” the cable said.