The Bottom Line

UN experts confirmed on February 12, 2025, that German-American Jamshid Sharmahd was wrongfully kidnapped, detained, and murdered by the Islamic Republic.

Also on February 12, state media released photos of two detained British nationals—the latest hostages arrested on baseless espionage charges.

These recent cases underscore the Islamic Republic’s ongoing practice of hostage diplomacy, accentuating the urgent need for European countries to cease appeasing the regime.

Germany, in particular, has been among the most willing EU members to concede to the regime's demands.
- Recently, this has become increasingly evident as the German Foreign Ministry twice blocked Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's invitation to the Munich Security Conference.

The Case of Jamshid Sharmahd

Special Rapporteurs from the United Nations Human Rights Council, who had been documenting the Islamic Republic's human rights violations through the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), released a statement “expressing their dismay at the death in custody of Jamshid Sharmahd in Iran.”

Sharmahd, a German citizen and U.S. Permanent Resident, was abducted in 2022 by agents of the Islamic Republic while at Dubai International Airport.
- The WGAD report characterized his kidnapping as “contrary to applicable international norms and constitutes a violation of the right to liberty. “

After his transport to Iran, the regime charged him with “corruption on earth.” The WGAD defined this charge as baseless, recounting that Sharmahd “was exercising his freedom of expression as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime.”

Prior to his trial, Islamic Republic state-controlled media aired a video of Sharmahd blindfolded and clearly coerced to give a confession.
- The WGAD stated that this was both “degrading and manifestly inadmissible as evidence in criminal proceedings.”

Sharmahd was held in custody for over 30 months and subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including prolonged periods in solitary confinement, forced to sleep on the floor with other inmates, denied adequate healthcare, and repeatedly denied medication for his Parkinson's disease.
- The WGAD cited that this treatment violated the UN’s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which holds that all persons “deprived of their liberty must be treated with humanity and respect for their inherent dignity, including being allowed to enjoy the same health care standards available in the community.”

Sharmahd was executed on October 28, 2024. It took until February 6, 2025, for the regime to transfer his remains to his family.
- The delay in the dignified transfer of his remains was described as a violation of the family's human rights.

Continued Detention of Dual and Foreign Nationals

On February 12, 2025 the Islamic Republic detained two British nationals in Iran on "security-related charges." State media published blurred images of the two individuals meeting with the British ambassador at the Kerman prosecutor's office.

Their arrests came just a few weeks after the European Parliament adopted a motion condemning the regime's detention of EU citizens, labeling the practice as hostage diplomacy and calling on the council “to take decisive action and designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.”

The motion is especially critical given that the regime has continued to detain multiple EU nationals on arbitrary, unfounded charges. On January 13, a French radio network, France Inter, aired a phone conversation recorded in Evin by a French national who was detained and sentenced to five years in prison for "espionage and conspiracy against the Islamic Republic." He described his detention as arbitrary and unbearable, stating that he “shares a cell with 18 other detainees and has limited access to resources sent by the French embassy.”
- The interviewee also described the conditions of two other French nationals, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, “as very poor and losing hope.”
- Prior to being taken hostage, the couple jointly served as the heads of France's most prominent teacher's union. The regime used the couple's background as the primary piece of evidence to formulate trumped up charges of “spying and fomenting unrest in Iran by allegedly organizing trade union protests."
- According to family members, they have been allowed only one consular visit with a French diplomat during the entirety of their detention, are rarely permitted telephone calls, and are authorized to leave their prison cell only three times per week.

Why the Regime Takes Hostages

As noted in NUFDI’s report, How to Combat the Hostage-Taking Business in Iran, a primary motivation behind the regime’s hostage-taking is the use of foreign nationals as bargaining chips in diplomatic negotiations.
- Days before Sharmahd’s guilty verdict was announced, his regime-appointed lawyer informed his family that the death sentence would be carried out unless they engaged in "diplomatic" activities for a prisoner swap. Regime security agents indicated a desire to exchange him for former regime official Asadollah Assadi, who was convicted of attempting an act of terror and plotting a bombing in Austria. Assadi was later released in exchange for Belgian hostage Oliver Vandecasteele.

Regime officials have repeatedly acknowledged that hostage diplomacy is an official policy of the Islamic Republic.
- In 2021, Mohsen Rezae, former Commander of the IRGC who went on to serve as Vice President for Economic Affairs from 2021- 2023, suggested during his presidential campaign that "Iran could solve its economic problems by taking 1,000 Americans hostage," adding that “America would be forced to pay billions to free each one.”
- In 2020, IRGC officer Hassan Abbasi suggested that “Iran could resolve sanctions issues by taking 10 or 20 Americans hostage each month, demanding $1 billion per individual, thereby potentially securing $50 billion annually.”

Germany Appeases the Regime

Despite the regime's repeated hostage-taking of European nationals, some EU members persist in seeking a partnership with the Islamic Republic through appeasement.

Over the past two weeks, Germany’s Foreign Ministry intervened twice to block Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s invitation to speak at the Munich Security Conference.
- Pahlavi has been a leading advocate for a secular, democratic Iran, consistently promoting non-violent civil disobedience to achieve this goal. He spoke at the 2023 Munich Conference, where he called for the West to take immediate actions to support Iranians in their struggle for freedom and democracy, including helping Iranians secure internet access, establishing a strike fund for workers protesting the regime, and funding initiatives to strengthen the opposition’s efforts.

This year, Pahlavi was slated to outline a five-point plan to further support Iranians who are still fighting for regime change.
- From December 26, 2024, to January 2, 2025, there were 54 protests across Iran. More recently, on February 15, 2025, student protests erupted following the death of Amir-Mohammad Khaleghi, an undergraduate business management student at Tehran University, who was fatally stabbed by two men just outside the campus.

The German government’s decision to revoke the invitation reflects their consistent failure to confront and deter threats from the Islamic Republic.

Policy Recommendations

The United States Congress and State Department should aggressively urge the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to trigger snapback sanctions under UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
- Invoking snapback sanctions due to Iran’s non-compliance with the JCPOA would reinstate previous UN sanctions, including a comprehensive arms embargo, that expired last year. The ability to trigger snapback expires in October 2025.
- Senator Pete Ricketts, along with Representatives Claudia Tenney and Josh Gottheimer, introduced resolutions in the Senate and House, respectively, urging the E3 to trigger these sanctions and support Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.
  - Bipartisan support for this resolution would send a clear message that the United States Congress expects Europe to join them in holding the regime accountable and emphasize the need for decisive action.

The United Nations should establish a dedicated fact-finding mission or commission of inquiry with the authority to investigate the Islamic Republic’s abduction and murder of Jamshid Sharmahd, as well as the regime’s record of extraterritorial abductions, forced disappearances, torture, and other systemic human rights violations. In parallel, the international community should work toward the establishment of an international tribunal to hold Islamic Republic officials accountable for crimes against humanity, hostage-taking, and extrajudicial executions.
- In 2024, a UN fact-finding mission found that “state authorities in Iran were responsible for egregious human rights violations in connection with the protests that started on September 16 2022.”