German's family doesn't 'trust anything' said by Iran on his death: daughter

The family of Iran-born German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd does not trust anything said by the Iranian government about his fate, his daughter said Tuesday, after the judiciary announced he had died before his death sentence could be implemented.

"We do not trust anything. We have to get proof from an independent investigation that is carried out outside of Iran," Gazelle Sharmahd told AFP.

An Iranian judiciary spokesman said earlier that Sharmahd had died in prison, after a previous announcement last week said he had been executed.

Sharmahd, who was also a permanent resident in the United States, was executed on October 28 on the charge of "corruption on earth", according to the Mizan Online news website of the Iranian judiciary.

But judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday that "Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his execution was imminent, but he died before it could be carried out," without elaborating further.

Sharmahd, 69, was tried and convicted after he was abducted in the United Arab Emirates in July 2020 by Iranian agents and forcibly brought to Iran, according to the family and the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention in a 2022 report.

In his trial, Sharmahd was accused of involvement in a bombing against a mosque in 2008 in the southern city of Shiraz that killed 14 people as well as espionage, claims rejected by the United Nations Working Group.

- 'They are complicit' -

Gazelle Sharmahd said it was now up to the US and German governments to investigate and provide proof of what has happened to her father.

"Immediately we asked, who has seen my father, who murdered my father? We need responsible governments who do their jobs and investigate," she said.

"Any cause of death -- even if proven -- of my father, who was in solitary confinement for 1,400 days, is murder," she added.

"If Germany and the US think this kind of statement (from the Iranian judiciary) will free them from their obligations then this is not the case.

"If this was not an execution then it is even worse. This is murder and they (the German and US governments) are complicit."

In the United States, Sharmahd helped develop a website for an opposition movement and hosted radio broadcasts critical of Iranian authorities.

The case of Jamshid Sharmahd had long been shrouded in uncertainty.

There were never reports of fellow detainees having seen him, even though foreign passport holders are known to regularly cross paths in Tehran's Evin prison.

During his captivity, he made a handful of phone calls to his family but was never allowed to reveal where he was being held amid increasing concern over his health.

In response to the execution reported by Iran last week, Germany ordered the closure of Iranian consulates on its territory. There has been no immediate reaction from Berlin to the latest development.

"Given the lack of transparency and the contradictory reports from the judiciary, we demand an independent investigation by an international delegation, including forensic experts, into the fate of Jamshid Sharmahd," said Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).