The German government did not do enough to bring back Jamshid Sharmahd, who was kidnapped by Iran in 2020, maintains his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd. Now his family is urging the German government to to at least secure the repatriation of his body.
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00:00Jamshid Ashamad had dual German and Iranian citizenship and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020
00:06by Iranian security forces. He was later convicted of terrorism in a trial that human rights groups
00:12described as a sham. Tehran initially said the 69-year-old had been executed and then said he
00:19died of natural causes before his execution. Yalza Zabak is head of DW's Persia service and
00:26spoke with his daughter. His family is urging the German government to do more to secure
00:31the repatriation of his body. Giselle, you mentioned that you don't accept condolences
00:38for the loss of your father. Why is that? Well, we've seen the regime in Iran for 45 years.
00:46We know that we cannot trust anything that they say. So even claiming that my father is dead,
00:53I cannot take that as a fact unless somebody that we trust, somebody from the UN, from Germany,
00:59from America, would go there and see my father and find my father's body and bring him back to
01:05us. That's when we have confirmation. But anything that the regime says is a lie. We know that. So
01:14that's why I would like to get my father's body back at least. Our governments were supposed to
01:20bring him back as a hostage for four years, but hopefully they can at least, that is the very least,
01:27get his body out from the hands of the hostage takers and confirm with us. What do you think
01:33are the chances of this happening? I think the Islamic regime is feeling the pressure right now
01:39in a political sense. We know what's going on inside of the Middle East. But besides that,
01:44Germany has closed some of its consulates. There's pressure from the EU that's coming.
01:49We had elections in America with Donald Trump now having more pressure. So I think it is a good
01:55chance for all of these governments to finally come together and request that my father is being
02:00brought back and request that the other hostages are being brought back that are still held there.
02:04So hopefully they will step up their game now. Do you think there was anything that could have
02:11been done to prevent your father's execution? Of course. Countless times. There were countless
02:18opportunities. I mean, the regime, when they kidnap an opponent, they have two options. Either
02:24they murder him right away because they wanted to silence him, or if they have the chance,
02:30they want to make money out of it. So that's where my dad was a double card. He was either going to
02:35be murdered if no government showed interest in freeing him, or he was going to be used for a big
02:42hostage negotiations deal. And we saw for four years the US government and the German government
02:49and the European Union engaged in hostage deal after hostage deal after hostage deal after
02:55hostage deal and released at least eight European prisoners, five Americans. And my father was left
03:04behind every single time, every single time. Not just my father, also other dissidents like
03:09Habib Jabb, Uwe Lausanne. We were all left behind, all murdered because our governments
03:15didn't want to bring them back.