DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian official declared on Tuesday that Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German detainee, had died prior to his scheduled execution, which contradicts earlier statements from Iran claiming he had already been executed.
The assertion was made by Asghar Jahangir in light of Germany’s decision to close its Iranian consulates following the news of Sharmahd’s death.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, Jahangir mentioned, “Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his sentence was prepared for execution, yet he passed away before it could be carried out.”
However, he did not provide any further details regarding the circumstances surrounding Sharmahd’s death.
Jahangir’s comments were shared with a newspaper following a weekly press briefing.
Efforts to obtain a response from authorities in Germany and the United States, where Sharmahd had resided previously, were unsuccessful.
Iran had reported his execution took place on October 28, marking Sharmahd’s age as 69 at the time of his death.
