His household has mentioned he was merely the spokesman for the opposition group and denied he was concerned in any assaults. They accuse Iranian intelligence of abducting him from Dubai in 2020. His hometown is Glendora, California.
German International Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned the loss of life sentence is “completely unacceptable” and that there could be a “clear response,” with out elaborating.
She mentioned Sharmahd didn’t have “even the start of a good trial” and that consular entry and entry to the trial had been “repeatedly denied.” She additionally mentioned he had been arrested “beneath extremely questionable circumstances,” with out elaborating.
The loss of life sentence — which will be appealed — comes towards the backdrop of months of anti-government protests in Iran and a fierce crackdown on dissent. Monarchists primarily based exterior Iran help the protests, as do different teams and people with completely different ideologies.
The official web site of Iran’s judiciary mentioned Sharmahd was convicted of plotting terrorist actions. He was tried in a Revolutionary Courtroom, the place proceedings are held behind closed doorways and the place rights teams say defendants are unable to decide on their legal professionals or see the proof towards them.
Iranian authorities have accused him of planning a sequence of assaults, together with the 2008 bombing of the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada Mosque in Shiraz, by which 14 individuals had been killed and greater than 200 had been wounded. He has additionally been accused of working with U.S. intelligence and spying on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
State TV has mentioned his group was additionally behind a 2010 bombing at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran that wounded a number of individuals.
Iran says Sharmahd is the chief of Tondar, the militant wing of the opposition group often called the Kingdom Meeting of Iran. He had been beforehand focused in an obvious Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil in 2009.
His household says he was passing by Dubai on his technique to India for a enterprise deal in July 2020 when he abruptly stopped responding to calls or messages from them. Location information confirmed his telephone leaving a lodge close to the airport and touring south, throughout the border into neighboring Oman and to the port of Sohar, the place the sign stopped.
Two days later, Iran introduced that Sharmahd had been captured in a “advanced operation” and the Intelligence Ministry printed a photograph of him blindfolded.
His household says he was held in solitary confinement for greater than 18 months earlier than being placed on trial in February of final 12 months.
A Center East knowledgeable with Amnesty Worldwide’s German department, Katja Müller-Fahlbusch, mentioned the group is “appalled by the loss of life sentence.”
She mentioned in a press release that the proceedings had been “a present trial” and that “Iran withheld quite a few rights from him, together with the free alternative of a lawyer.”
Müller-Fahlbusch added that Sharmahd’s household has had “pretty much as good as no contact” with him for over two years, nobody is aware of what jail he’s in and “we’ve got to imagine that he has been a sufferer of torture.” As well as, his well being has “worsened dramatically” in custody and Iranian authorities have “systematically denied him entry to acceptable medical care,” she mentioned.
Western officers consider Iran runs intelligence operations in Dubai and retains tabs on the tons of of 1000’s of Iranians dwelling within the cosmopolitan metropolis within the United Arab Emirates, which is a U.S. ally. Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British-Iranian nationwide Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, although Tehran has denied involvement.
The U.S. State Division runs its Iran Regional Presence Workplace in Dubai, the place diplomats monitor Iranian media reviews and discuss to Iranians.
Iran has been rocked by greater than 5 months of anti-government protests ignited by the loss of life of a 22-year-old girl who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic costume code. The protesters have known as for the overthrow of the nation’s ruling clerics.
Safety forces have attacked the demonstrators with stay ammunition, chook shot and batons, rights teams say. At the very least 530 protesters have been killed and practically 20,000 individuals have been arrested, in accordance with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a bunch monitoring the unrest.
Iranian authorities have blamed the protests on hostile overseas powers, with out offering proof, and haven’t launched official figures for these killed or arrested.
Iran has executed 4 males accused of violence linked to the protests, and activists say at the very least 16 others have been sentenced to loss of life.
Related Press author Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.