The Islamic Republic of Iran reportedly executed journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, a California resident and vocal critic of the Tehran regime, on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
The Mizan website of the Iranian regime’s justice system reported that Sharmahd, 69, was killed Monday morning.
Sharmahd’s daughter Gazelle, who lives in California, previously told Fox News Digital that the Iranian regime was “scapegoating an innocent man” over bombing allegations, and spoke about her affinity with the United States.
She told Fox News Digital in August 2023: “My father chose the United States as his home, worked hard, followed all the rules, belongs to a family of four generations around him of American citizenship, lived here for 20 years as tax. -paying, law-abiding resident who would already have citizenship if not for the terrorists and qualifies as a U.S. national under the Levinson Act. »
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Iran reportedly executed Californian journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, a vocal critic of the Tehran regime. (Gazelle Sharmahd)
The Levinson Act defines a “United States person” as a “lawful permanent resident with significant ties to the United States.” According to the State Department, the definition applies to non-U.S. citizens.
The act is named Robert Levinsona retired FBI agent and private investigator who disappeared from an Iranian island in 2007. Levinson was held hostage and was pronounced dead in 2020 despite reportedly dying in Iranian custody. His family blamed his capture and imprisonment on the Iranian regime.
Fox News Digital reported that the Biden administration had faced heavy criticism for apparently abandoning Sharmahd and sending his case back to Germany. Sharmahd is a German citizen. Critics of German policy in Iran say German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock failed to use her country’s economic and political influence to secure Sharmahd’s release.
Fox News Digital sent press inquiries to the German Foreign Ministry.
Sharmahd survived an assassination attempt in California in which an Iranian agent was convicted of the planned murder. He was then kidnapped by the Iranian regime in Dubai in 2020 as part of a business trip.
The Mizan website, controlled by the Iranian regime, claimed, without evidence, that Sharmahd had committed “multiple terrorist acts under the direction of his handlers in the US and Israeli intelligence services.”
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disagrees with protest against execution. (Getty Images)
Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American human rights activist and expert on the mullahs’ regime, told Fox News Digital: “In 1988, after the Islamic Republic of Iran was forced to agree to a ceasefire, fire with Iraq, it took brutal revenge by executing more than 5,000 political prisoners, including my brother Bijan, who has already spent years behind bars. The world remained silent, unable to hold the regime accountable. The execution of Jamshid Sharmahd is now another diversion, covering up the regime’s failures against Israel and the losses it suffered. by Hezbollah and Hamas. »
She added: “If the world remains silent again, more innocent Iranian prisoners will be killed. The world community must unite against this terrorist regime – Germany and other European countries should expel Iranian diplomats, close embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran who act like terrorists. The United States must also use every tool at its disposal to pressure Iran to stop these executions. »
Amnesty International noted that Sharmahd “was found guilty of ‘corruption on earth’ which is not clearly defined in the law and, as such, contravenes the principle of legality” and called his trial “manifestly unfair” .
Jamshid Sharmahd attends his trial at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Iran, February 6, 2022. (Koosha Mahshid Falahi/Mizan News Agency via AP)
The British human rights organization added: “Since July 2020, Iranian authorities have subjected him to enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, including through prolonged solitary confinement. and denial of adequate health care. »
Tehran’s opaque justice system claims that Sharmahd played a role in a 2008 terrorist attack on a mosque in Shiraz, Iran, that left 14 people dead and more than 200 injured.
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However, the regime-controlled Fars News outlet cited the Iranian National Security Council in 2008 as saying: “A bomb explosion or any explosion carried out by opposition elements, whether internal or foreigners, is excluded. by certain ammunition used in an exhibition for the [Iran-Iraq War] martyrs in the mosque.
Jason Poblete, Jamshid Sharmahd’s attorney, wrote on He added that the family requests confidentiality until the facts are confirmed.
Iranian journalist and human rights activist Vahid Beheshti blasted the Iranian regime on
Fox News Digital has contacted the US State Department for comment.
