Daughter of Iranian-German Sentenced to Death Urges Berlin to Pressure Tehran

Jamshid Sharmahd shows his German passport on screen during the trial in February 2022. (AFP)
Jamshid Sharmahd shows his German passport on screen during the trial in February 2022. (AFP)
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Daughter of Iranian-German Sentenced to Death Urges Berlin to Pressure Tehran

Jamshid Sharmahd shows his German passport on screen during the trial in February 2022. (AFP)
Jamshid Sharmahd shows his German passport on screen during the trial in February 2022. (AFP)

The daughter of Iranian-German dual national Jamshid Sharmahd, who is sentenced to death, has urged the German government to exert more efforts to rescue her father.

Gazelle Sharmahd urged the German government to pressure the Iranian authorities or else Tehran would be convinced that “we don’t have a red line”.

She added that until now there is no serious response from the government that would interest the leadership in Iran or make it refrain from executing Jamshid.

Gazelle told Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday that “Berlin remained ineffective in her father’s case for a long time”.

Berlin should have acted two and a half years ago when her father was abducted and now “it is too late”, according to Gazelle.

She added that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is exerting more efforts compared to her predecessor but “unfortunately, words aren't enough”.

Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Sharmahd.

The Tehran Revolutionary Court in February sentenced Sharmahd, 67, to death after being held responsible for involvement in a “terrorist” attack and accused of cooperating with foreign intelligence agencies.

These allegations can't be confirmed.

Iran usually executes the death sentence by hanging.

Baerbock said the decision was “unacceptable” and called on Iran “to reverse this arbitrary sentence immediately”.

Sharmahd also has a US residency.

Sharmahd's arrest was announced in 2020 through an Intelligence Ministry statement that described him as “the ringleader of the terrorist Tondar group, who directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America,” according to Reuters.



German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

More details emerged Sunday about those killed when a man drove a car at speed through a Christmas market in Germany, while mourners continued to place flowers and other tributes at the site of the attack.

Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place on Friday evening, said that the victims were four women ranging in age from 45 to 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken of a day earlier.

Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and beyond.

Authorities have identified the suspect in the Magdeburg attack as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.

The suspect was on Saturday evening brought before a judge, who behind closed doors ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment.

Police haven’t publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The horror triggered by yet another act of mass violence in Germany make it likely that migration will remain a key issue as German heads toward an early election on Feb. 23.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party had already been polling strongly amid a societal backlash against the large numbers of refugees and migrants who have arrived in Germany over the past decade.

Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized German authorities for having allowed high levels of migration in the past and for what they see as security failures now.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for a strong anti-migration position going back years, used the attack in Germany to lash out at the European Union’s migration policies.

At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orban insisted that “there is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world in Western Europe, the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and terrorist acts.”

Orban vowed to “fight back” against the EU migration policies “because Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary, too.”