Berlin, 3/6/2022

The well-known regime critic and German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd was abducted to Iran by the Iranian secret service in August 2020 during a stopover at Dubai airport.

In a staged show trial before the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Sharmahd is now being accused of contrived acts. There is no trial to the rule of law; there is no evidence, Sharmahd has been forced to confess under torture, and he has no access to a lawyer of his choice.

The dangerous dramaturgy of the show trial amounts to a conviction and execution of Sharmahd. This is in line with the regime's usual approach of discrediting dissidents and silencing them through executions. The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB), together with the family of the accused, politicians and human rights activists, therefore appeals to the German government to exert public pressure on the regime in Iran to release Jamshid Sharmahd.

The daughter of the regime critic Gazelle Sharmahd says: "For more than 15 years, the Islamic government has tried to steal my father's voice by all means: with a smear campaign, years of persecution, dangerous threats, foiled assassination attempts, with a kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, and today, on the third day of his show trial, with the threat of the death penalty. All this only because he has courageously used his right to freedom of expression. The German government is now in the best position to put serious pressure and show that no German is helplessly at the mercy of the regime's terror."

Support also comes from Mariam Claren. She is the daughter of Nahid Taghavi from Cologne, a political prisoner who was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after a sham trial in Iran: "Arbitrary arrests, solitary confinement, forced confessions, sham trials and draconian sentences such as the death penalty are the order of the day in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The same death sentence awaits Mr. Sharmahd. The German government must finally visibly stand up for its citizens, otherwise they will be complicit. We must not get used to terror. I stand in solidarity with the Sharmahd family and demand his release."

FDP Secretary-General-designate Bijan Djir-Sarai condemns the trial in Iran, saying, "For his courageous stand against the Iranian regime, Jamshid Sharmahd now faces the death penalty. Human rights are indivisible and apply worldwide – they must also apply to Jamshid Sharmahd. Time and again, Iran breaks this principle. Sharmahd must be released from unlawful detention as soon as possible to live a life in freedom."

Human rights activist Mina Ahadi, who has been fighting the death penalty since 2004, warns, "The situation is very serious. If the death penalty is imposed on Sunday, there is not much time. The federal government must act immediately. The Islamic regime is organizing an elaborate smear campaign against Jamshid Sharmahd, which is also an enormous violation of human rights."

MFFB board member Ulrike Becker explains, "Experience shows that only public pressure can achieve something against the Islamic Republic's execution machinery. The German government must visibly and unequivocally condemn the show trial against Sharmahd and demand his release."

For more information on the Sharmahd case, visit the International Society for Human Rights website here: https://www.igfm.de/kampagne-save-jamshid-sharmahd/.

A petition with now over 65,000 signatures can be found here: www.change.org/p/save-jamshid-sharmahd-jamshid-sharmahd-darf-nicht-hingerichtet-werden-abaerbock-auswaertigesamt-miro-spd-freejamshidsharmahd.