We live in a dangerous world. Some days, I think my current role is a journalist is equally as dangerous as my former career as a soldier. While traveling the world, you are at constant risk of being abducted and held against your will. In extreme cases, the abductors will take your life to make a political point. That is what happened recently to Jamshid Sharmahd.

Sharmahd, a German-American journalist and dissident who resided in California, was executed in Iran after being convicted on disputed charges of terrorism, sparking international condemnation. Sharmahd had been in Iranian custody since 2020, when he was allegedly abducted by Iranian agents during a trip to Dubai.

He was executed early in the morning of October 28, 2024. Iranian state press did not release the mechanism of Sharmahd’s death, but Iran typically executes condemned prisoners by hanging, usually before sunrise.

Born in Tehran in 1955, Sharmahd moved to Germany as a child and eventually became a German citizen in 1995. He later moved to the United States in 2003 and became a permanent resident. In addition to being a journalist, Sharmahd worked as a software engineer.

He became affiliated with Tondar, a US-based Iranian opposition group formally known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran. Tondar advocates for the restoration of Iran’s monarchy, which was overthrown during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Shah of Iran
Mohamman Reza Pahlavi, commonly known to those in the West as “the Shah” or “the Shah of Iran” was overthrown by the 1979 Iranian Revolution thus abolishing the monarchy and bringing Ruhollah Khomeini to power. He is shown here in a 1973 portrait. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons