BERLIN: The daughter of German-Iranian dual national Jamshid Sharmahd on Wednesday brought charges in Germany against eight Iranian officials for “crimes against humanity” after her father was sentenced to death by authorities in Tehran.
The complaint, filed with German federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe, accuses the high-ranking members of the Iranian judiciary and intelligence apparatus of unlawfully detaining and torturing Sharmahd, as well as denying him a fair trial.
“For three years nobody knows where my father is. I haven’t had any contact with him for two,” Gazelle Sharmahd said via video link from the United States.
“I do not know if he will survive,” she said.
“The aim of the charges is to show that Iran is committing crimes against humanity,” said Wolfgang Kaleck, head of the human right group ECCHR who filed the complaint together with Gazelle Sharmahd.
“We hope these charges will trigger a judicial inquiry into the detention of Jamshid Sharmahd,” Kaleck said.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe applies the principle of universal jurisdiction — which allows it to pursue people for crimes of exceptional gravity, including war crimes and genocide, even if they were committed in a different country.
Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February after he was convicted for taking part the April 2008 attack in the southern city of Shiraz that killed 14 people.
The sentence was subsequently confirmed by Iran’s supreme court in April.
Germany has condemned the death sentence handed down to Sharmahd, describing the verdict as “unacceptable.”
Over a dozen Western passport-holders are being held in Iran on various charges. Most hold dual nationality, which Iran does not recognize.
Eight Iranian officials targeted in German criminal complaint
https://arab.news/ptzxd
Eight Iranian officials targeted in German criminal complaint
- Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February
- He was convicted for taking part the 2008 attack that killed 14 people
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
