22 July 2024 :

The German Foreign Ministry confirmed on July 19, 2024 that a German national has been sentenced to death in Belarus and said Berlin was in intensive contact with authorities in Minsk over his fate.
The German ministry did not identify the man, but earlier on July 19 the Minsk-based Vyasna human rights group said that the man sentenced to death was Rico Krieger.
Vyasna said Krieger, 30, was taken into custody in November 2023, went on trial on June 6, and was sentenced on June 24 by the Minsk regional court.
The human rights group said it was the first trial in Belarus for "mercenary activity."
It said Krieger had been charged additionally with terrorism, creating an extremist group, intentionally damaging a vehicle, and illegal operations with firearms and explosives.
The Belarusian authorities have not commented on the case, and the court refused to give any information about the matter to RFE/RL by telephone.
The German Foreign Ministry said it and the German Embassy were giving "the person in question consular support and...working intensively with Belarusian authorities on his behalf."
Vyasna said the charges were connected to the Kalinouski Regiment, a group of anti-government Belarusian exiles fighting for Ukraine. The Kalinouski Regiment denies any connection to the case.
Krieger was born in Berlin and worked as a paramedic for the German Red Cross, according to Vyasna. He has a young son, who lives in Germany.
Krieger worked previously as a special security officer for the U.S. State Department in Berlin, where he gained experience in armed security operations. He then moved to the field of health care and worked as a nurse specializing in emergency medical care.

20 November 2024 :

November 18, 2024

IRAN (Germany)

German lawmakers sponsor 4 Iranian protesters on death row
4 German parliamentarians have taken on political sponsorships for 4 Iranian protesters who were recently sentenced to death over their alleged involvement in the killing of a Basij militia member during the 2022 nationwide protests.
On November 13, the Islamic Republic's Judiciary issued death sentences for Milad Armoun, Alireza Kafaei, Amir Mohammad Khosheghbal, Navid Najaran, Hossein Nemati, and Alireza Barmarzpournak, the six individuals accused of killing Basij member Arman Aliverdi in Tehran's Ekbatan apartment complex. The charges against them remain contested, however, due to a lack of clear evidence linking them to the crime.
In a statement, German Parliament members Tobias B. Bacherle, Oliver Kaczmarek, and Anne Monika Spallek, along with Lisa-Kristin Kapteinat from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament, announced political sponsorships for four of the accused, urging Iran's government to release them immediately.
"We express our profound concern over the devastating developments... They were all sentenced to death by the brutal Iranian regime without a fair trial and under inhumane conditions," the German MPs said, adding that the Islamic Republic "seeks to carry out executions to suppress resistance entirely."
The Ekbatan Complex case, tied to the broader unrest that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, involves accusations that the defendants participated in Aliverdi's killing. A video circulating on social media showed Aliverdi, bleeding from the face and head as a protester kicked him. Authorities allege that protesters stabbed him, but the defendants deny the charges, with Ekbatan residents saying that Aliverdi was attempting to infiltrate the protests.
The controversy surrounding the case is compounded by reports of torture and mistreatment of the accused, with human rights organizations expressing concern over the fairness of the trial.
The death sentences for the 6 protesters came against the backdrop of the Islamic Republic's execution spree over the past few years. At least 711 people have been executed in Iran since January.
The Norway-based Iranian rights group Hengaw reported on Saturday that 13 of the 711 documented executions this year involved political prisoners. The group also documented 21 fatalities in Iran’s prisons in 2024, including four deaths of political detainees and 8 deaths attributed to torture.
"Iran has an appalling record of executions, most recently evidenced by the execution of German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd," the four German parliamentarians said in their statement released on Saturday. "The systematic use of the death penalty to suppress political opinions constitutes a grave violation of fundamental human rights and has been strongly condemned by the international community."
On November 5, Iran’s judiciary announced that German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd died in late October before his scheduled execution. “Jamshid Sharmahd's death sentence was set to be carried out, but fate offered no reprieve, and he died before the execution could proceed," the Judiciary's spokesman said.
Sharmahd was abducted by Iranian agents during a visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2020 and forcibly taken to Iran. In February 2023, Iran's Judiciary sentenced him to death on charges of endangering national security. Tehran says that Sharmahd was responsible for a 2008 attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people and injured 200.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202411176464

29 October 2024 :

October 28, 2024 - IRAN. Jamshid Sharmahd executed on October 28 at an undisclosed location
A German-Iranian citizen kidnapped from the UAE
According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, Jamshid Sharmahd was executed at an undisclosed location on 28 October after his sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death for charges of “efsad- fil-arz (corruption on earth) by planning and directing terrorist acts” in February 2023.
Iran Human Rights condemns Jamshid Sharmahd’s execution and calls for a strong reaction by the international community to his execution and the wave of executions in Iran.
IHR Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The execution of Jamshid Sharmahd is a case of extrajudicial killing of a hostage aimed at covering up the recent failures of the hostage-takers of the Islamic Republic. Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates and unlawfully transferred to Iran, where he was sentenced to death without a fair trial by the Revolutionary Court. The entire process, including his arrest, conviction, and execution, constitutes a serious violation of international law. The international community must condemn the extrajudicial killing of Jamshid Sharmahd in the strongest possible terms.”
Jamshid Sharmahd was a German-Iranian dissident activist who was kidnapped on a layover in Dubai when flying to the United States, his country of residence, from India. He last spoke to his wife on 28 July 2020. On 1 August, Minister of Intelligence and Security Mahmoud Alavi announced on state television that Jamshid Sharmahd had been arrested “following a complex operation” and aired a video of him stating his name while blindfolded with a black cloth. Charges related to a 2010 Mosque bombing, for which three men had already been executed, were brought against him.
After being held in pre-trial detention for over a year and a half, his first hearing was held on 6 February 2022. Presided by Judge Salavati, a “hanging judge” on the US sanctions list, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court held multiple public hearings on the accusations of “efsad- fil-arz by planning and directing terrorist acts”, including the 2010 bombing. He was sentenced to death on 21 February 2023. Jamshid was held in solitary confinement following his arrest and denied legal representation, due process and the right to a fair trial. The confirmation of his sentence by the Supreme Court was announced by authorities on 26 April 2023.
Arresting political dissidents outside of Iran is not unprecedented. Ruhollah Zam, the director of Amad News Telegram channel, was arrested in Iraq in October 2019 and transported to Iran. He was executed on 12 December 2020. Iranian-Swedish dissident, Habib Chaab was also kidnapped from Turkey in October 2020 and executed on 6 May 2023.
HoC had already published news about Sharmahd on 04/08/2020, 20/02/2023, 22/02/2023, 23/02/2023, 26/04/2023, 01/07/2023, 08/08/2023, 03/11/2023.

https://iranhr.net/en/articles/7055/