An Iranian official claims an Iranian-German prisoner died before being put to death – Winnipeg Free Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian official claimed Tuesday that Iranian-German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd died before Tehran could execute him — directly contradicting the country’s earlier announcement that he had been put to death.

Asghar Jahangir’s comment comes after Germany closed all three Iranian consulates in the country over Sharmahd’s death, leaving only the embassy in Berlin open.

Meanwhile, Iranian reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has issued his own criticism of Germany’s response to Sharmahd’s death, as tensions remain high between Tehran and the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program and ongoing wars in the Middle East.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted Jahangir as saying: “Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his sentence was ready to be executed, but he died before the sentence was executed.”

He didn’t work it out. Jahangir’s comments were made to the state-affiliated Quds newspaper after a weekly news conference, where journalists typically pressure the spokesman to answer questions he did not answer from the podium.

Authorities in Germany and the US, where Sharmahd once lived, were not immediately available for comment. An attorney for Sharmahd’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran had said it executed Sharmahd on October 28. He was 69.

Iran accused Sharmahd, who lived in Glendora, California, of plotting an attack on a mosque in 2008 that killed 14 people — including five women and a child — and injured more than 200 others of other attacks through the little known Kingdom Assembly. of Iran and its militant wing of Tondar.

Iran also accused Sharmahd of “disclosing classified information” about Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard missile sites during a 2017 television program.

His family disputed the charges and had worked for years to have him released. Germany, the US and international rights groups have dismissed Sharmahd’s trial as a sham.

Sharmahd was apparently kidnapped in 2020 during a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. His family received their last message from him on July 28, 2020.