'Last chance to save dad': daughter of German on Iran death row

Germany and other European countries must do everything they can to save a German citizen sentenced to death by Iran after he was abducted in the Gulf, his daughter said on Wednesday.

Jamshid Sharmahd, a German-Iranian dual national, was Tuesday handed the death sentence on terror charges vehemently rejected by his family, who also say he was kidnapped in Dubai by Iran in 2020 and taken to the Islamic republic for a show trial.

The European governments "should use all the means in their political arsenal -- each and every one of them," his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd told AFP.

"It needs heroic measures right now. It needs extreme measures," she added, as Germany said it was declaring two Iranian diplomats persona non grata in response to the verdict.

She said measures could range from a cutting relations to ministers travelling to Iran and insisting in person on his release.

"Everything is very, very late. This is the last chance to save my dad's life," she added. "We need massive escalation. We need action."

Gazelle Sharmahd raised deep concern over her father's condition, saying he had lost all his teeth in jail and also no longer had the right to speak to his family.

"Dad has been fading away in prison," she said.

"We don't even know where he is, we don't know how he is doing or even if he knows this horrible news (of the verdict) and if every time his cell door opens he thinks he is going to be pulled out for the last time."

- 'Kangaroo courts' -

Sharmahd is one of two dozen dual national and foreign passport holders detained by Iran in what campaigners see as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West.

"My dad and all of the dual nationals are scapegoats in this sick game they are playing," his daughter said.

The family fears he risks a similar fate to Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian who was based in France. He was executed in December 2020 after having left Paris that October for Iraq, where supporters say he was detained by Iran.

An Iranian-Swedish dissident, Habib Chaab, also vanished, in Turkey in October 2020, and is on trial in Iran, awaiting sentencing.

Iran-born Sharmahd was US-based and involved with an Iranian opposition group, Tondar.

Iran says the group is a "terror" organisation and that Sharmahd was behind the deadly bombing of a mosque in 2008, charges rejected by the family.

"My dad was an activist," said Gazelle Sharmahd. "They like to silence activists and scare activists and tell them: 'We can pick you up anywhere, we can kidnap you and parade you in our kangaroo courts we can execute you'.

"If my dad has no value to the German government then they (Iran) will execute him to show their power and send a message to threaten others.

"We have to stay strong and say we will not allow that."