Germany outraged over Jamshid Sharmahd's execution in Iran

Leading German politicians condemned the execution of German-American citizen Jamshid Sharmahd in Iran this week, while his daughter Gazelle angrily condemned both the German and US governments for failing to do enough to work for his release.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X: "The execution of Jamshid Sharmahd by the Iranian regime is a scandal that I condemn in the strongest possible terms. Jamshid Sharmahd was not even given the opportunity to defend himself against the charges against him in court. The German government has repeatedly and vigorously stood up for Mr. Sharmahd. My deepest condolences go out to his family.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also condemned the execution, insisting that her ministry had "tirelessly advocated for Jamshid Sharmahd and sent a high-ranking team from the [Foreign Ministry] to Tehran several times. We repeatedly made it unmistakably clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences."

But Gazelle Sharmahd's reaction on Tuesday was furious, writing on X that she was about to speak to both German and US government representatives. "We will see in a few hours if these two incompetent and corrupt governments can tell me tonight: 1- What have they (US & German) done for 4 years when their German-American national was kidnapped in Dubai and taken to Iran by force? Besides abandoning you in every hostage negotiation what do they have to show for?"

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that Baerbock had already spoken to Gazelle Sharmahd on Monday evening to offer her condolences, and that the ministry would support her efforts to get her father's body out of Iran.

Abducted in Dubai

The 69-year-old Jamshid Sharmahd is thought to have been abducted by Iranian security forces in Dubai in 2020 and taken to Iran via Oman. He was condemned to death by an Iranian court in early 2023 on charges of "corruption on Earth" in connection with an alleged terrorist bombing in Shiraz in 2008.

Sharmahd, who moved to the US in 2003, denied any involvement with the bombing, and a video confession released by the Iranian government is believed to have been forced.

Amnesty International called his trial "grossly unfair," saying that he has been denied the right to independent defense. The human rights organization said that Sharmahd was targeted because he created a website for an opposition collective that advocates for an end to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sharmahd is believed to have suffered severe abuse during his three years in an Iranian prison. At a press conference in Berlin last year, Gazelle Sharmahd described brief phone calls she had had with her father two years earlier, during which he said that he had been tortured, that he had lost all but two of his teeth, and that he had no access to the medication to treat his Parkinson's disease, resulting in severe pains in his chest and limbs.

The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), last year supported Gazelle Sharmahd in her bid to get German state prosecutors to press charges against Iranian judges and officials who had sentenced Sharmahd. The organization said they had received no response from the prosecutors.

Demanding a tough response

Baerbock is yet to lay out what the "serious consequences" for Iran will be following the execution, but Friedrich Merz, head of Germany's conservative opposition party the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), lost no time demanding that the government take strong measures.

On X, Merz insisted that Germany must now push for the European Union to impose stronger sanctions on Iran and downgrade the country's diplomatic status to "chargé d'affaires," rather than have a full ambassador.

The Foreign Ministry clarified in its statement that Iran currently has no ambassador accredited in Berlin and that a chargé d'affaires temporarily heads the embassy. The previous ambassador was recalled in July, and Tehran had not yet sent a successor, the ministry said, before adding that the Iranian chargé d'affaires had been summoned on Tuesday morning.

Lamya Kaddor, spokesperson for Baerbock's Green Party, said that there would be a strong response. "With this, the regime has crossed another red line that must not go unanswered," she told DW by email. "We will discuss the measures available to us at the EU level, but also domestically, to counter Iran's human rights violations, aggressive regional policy and transnational repression throughout Europe."

Diba Mirzaei, Iran expert at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), said she thought the German government wouldn't really do anything in response to the execution, for one simple reason: "What more consequences could there be?" she told DW. "There aren't really any intensive relations between Iran and Germany anymore. Germany doesn't have a very important role in the Middle East that it could use to apply pressure. I'd be very surprised if we really saw a major change in German-Iranian relations."

Mirzaei also didn't think much of Merz's proposal to expel the Iranian ambassador. "I don't think Germany would do that because Germany also has an interest in maintaining diplomatic relations with Iran," she said. "so that, if there are more such cases, when people with dual nationality are arrested in Iran, Germany could still do something about it diplomatically."

But Mirzaei suggested that Germany's rhetoric towards Iran could and should become more robust. "In the case of Sharmahd, it was the family that made this case public," she said. "It wasn't the Foreign Ministry or the German embassy in Iran — it was activists and relatives. I think Germany could've done much more, maybe cooperate more with the family, who complained that communication with the Ministry was sparse. If it had been more public, it might have helped in this case."

The sanctions problem

Houssein Al Malla, GIGA researcher in international sanctions, said that Germany could pursue measures like asset freezes, travel bans, and diplomatic isolation, but also pointed out that sanctions can only be effective if multiple countries join them.

"The question here hinges on Germany’s strategic calculation and its ability to mobilize EU-wide support," he told DW. "If Berlin opts for significant sanctions, it would reflect an intent to inflict economic pain on Iran, particularly targeting sectors that are crucial for the regime's stability."German-Iranian relations have suffered in recent years, as EU-mandated sanctions took effect.

A major impediment to German-Iranian relations has been Iran's nuclear program. Germany was one of the signatories to the 2015 agreement JCPoA agreement aimed at imposing restrictions on Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent them from being used to build nuclear weapons.

The United Nations confirmed that Iran was abiding by the agreement, and both US and EU sanctions were subsequently eased for a short interval. But the deal, which was heavily opposed by Israel and the US Republican party, effectively collapsed in 2018 when the US withdrew from it under President Donald Trump.

Iran then began violating the terms of the agreement in 2019, once again increasing its production of enriched uranium, which triggered EU sanctions. As a result, official German government statistics say that German exports to Iran dropped to just €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2023, a 24% drop from the year before, while trade in the other direction dropped by 18% to €244 million. The execution of Sharmahd is now already increasing pressure on the EU to harden its line even further.

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

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