Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Iranian-German Dissident Captured by Iran Denied Access to Lawyer, Appears in
New Forced Confession, Daughter Tells VOA

Michael Lipin

   WASHINGTON - The daughter of a U.S.-based Iranian-German dissident
   captured by Iran four months ago as he traveled in the Gulf says
   Iranian authorities have treated him harshly, denying him access to a
   family-chosen lawyer and televising new images of him making an
   apparent forced confession.

   In a Monday interview with VOA Persian from Los Angeles where her
   family lives, the daughter of dissident Jamshid Sharmahd said an
   Iranian lawyer hired by her family in early October has been barred by
   Iran's judiciary from meeting her father or accessing his file since
   then.

   "The judiciary has told our lawyer that she cannot meet my father or
   see his charge sheet because his case is in an investigation phase at
   this time," Gazelle Sharmahd said.

   Iran typically allows only lawyers on a government-approved list to
   work on cases involving alleged national security offenses at the
   investigative stage.

   Sharmahd said her family's lawyer, whose name she withheld for privacy
   reasons, is not on the government list. But she said the lawyer pledged
   to keep trying to access her father's file.

   Germany's Tehran embassy also has offered to help the lawyer's effort,
   Sharmahd said.

   VOA cannot independently verify the lawyer's activities as it is barred
   from reporting inside the Islamist-ruled country.

   Jamshid Sharmahd went missing in late July as he was making a stop in
   Dubai while trying to book an onward flight to India for a business
   trip, according to his family.

   Iranian state media reported on August 1 that Iranian intelligence
   agents had captured the 65-year-old Iranian-German dual national in a
   "complex operation" without specifying exactly when or where he had
   been detained. On the same day, Iranian state TV aired a program in
   which the dissident appeared to confess to masterminding a 2008 bomb
   attack that killed 14 Iranians and wounded 215 others at a mosque in
   the southwestern city of Shiraz.

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