Iranian prosecutors and intelligence chief named in criminal complaint filed in Germany

Daughter hopes court will investigate human rights abuses against Jamshid Sharmahd, who faces execution in Iran

Jamshid Sharmahd, pictured with his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, who is seeking legal action against members of the Iranian regime over her father's treatment. Photo: Gazelle Sharmahd

Eight high-ranking members of the Iranian regime have been named in a criminal complaint submitted to a federal court in Germany by the daughter of a dissident who faces execution.

Gazelle Sharmahd, daughter of Jamshid Sharmahd, a German-Iranian dissident, lodged the complaint against members of the judiciary and intelligence services with the public prosecutor of the south-western city of Karlsruhe.

Mr Sharmahd, a US resident, was sentenced to death in Iran in February, after being convicted of terrorism charges, following three years in detention in Iran.

European diplomats and human rights organisations and Mr Sharmahd's family condemned the verdict – with Germany expelling two Iranian diplomats in response.

After years of fighting for her father’s release, Ms Sharmahd is now seeking legal action against members of the Iranian regime.

These include Abolgasem Salavati, presiding judge of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

He is reported by the Washington Post to have issued death sentences to protesters involved in the recent wave of protests against the regime.

These followed the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died in the custody of the morality police last September, after being detained in Tehran for wearing her hijab “improperly”.

Also included is Iran's prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri. The UK imposed sanctions against him in January, following the execution of British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari.

Others include Mahmoud Alavi, minister of intelligence at the time of Mr Sharmahd's detention, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, chief justice of Iran, who has said that women caught without veils would be “prosecuted without mercy”, and supreme court president Ahmed Mortazavi Moghadam.

German courts are engaged in several high-profile cases related to alleged human rights abuses and war crimes in the Middle East. These involve the principle of universal jurisdiction, in which authorities can investigate serious crimes committed anywhere in the world.

But lawyers say that Mr Sharmad’s German nationality means German courts have a duty to investigate his case.

Ms Sharmahd hopes the complaint will allow the federal prosecutor to “comprehensively investigate the Iranian regime”, and allow the German government to put more pressure on Iran.

“The kidnapping, unlawful detention, torture while in detention and the imminent execution of my father as a result of a show trial exemplify the untold crimes of the Iranian regime,” she said.

The criminal complaint comes as death sentences of political dissidents have increased in Iran, following the crackdown on anti-regime protests.

The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin-based non-profit which has supported Ms Sharmahd’s complaint, hopes the case will “trigger further investigations” in Germany of the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses.

“The regime in Tehran is responsible for the systematic torture, sexual violence, executions and ‘disappearances’ perpetrated against tens of thousands of people – most recently in the wake of the crackdown on the feminist revolution,” said ECCHR secretary general Wolfgang Kaleck.

“Whether through criminal charges in Germany in the Sharmahd case, legal action in another country or before an international court, the goal is to bring high-ranking officials of the Iranian government, judiciary, and security apparatus to justice for these crimes.”

In April, Iran's supreme court upheld the February death sentence handed down to Mr Sharmad, after he was convicted of charges of “corruption on earth”.

He was found guilty of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of planning attacks and of masterminding a bombing at a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz in 2008, in which 14 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.

His family say he is innocent.