In a 2023 trial condemned by Amnesty International, Germany, the United States, and the European Council, Sharmahd was sentenced to death.

[5] Sharmahd established his own software company and in 2003 moved to the United States, where he became a permanent resident (green card holder).

[14] Members of the group in California feared reprisal from Iranian agents, and Tondar's former office in Los Angeles was twice burglarized.

[18] The Iranian government alleged that Sharmahd was responsible for a 2008 attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people and injured 200; it also claimed that in 2017 he had revealed "classified information" on Revolutionary Guard missile sites.

[11] The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that "Mr. Sharmahd is being deprived of his liberty as a result of exercising the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

[18][20][21] Sharmahd's abduction was one of a series of kidnapping plots orchestrated by the Iranian government against dissidents,[11] as part of its campaign of transnational repression.

[12] Sharmahd's abduction was compared to the previous case of Ruhollah Zam, an exiled journalist who was lured back to Iran and executed in 2020.

[11][22][23] In February 2023, Sharmahd was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of "corruption on earth by planning and directing terrorist attacks.

[26] Amnesty International condemned the trial as grossly unfair, reporting that Iranian authorities had tortured Sharmahd while he was in detention, held him in solitary confinement for extended periods, and denied him access to his Parkinson's disease medications and other treatments.

[27] In 2022, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) released a 13-page document confirming Sharmahd's arrest, forced disappearance, human rights violations, and torture.

"[33] Baerbock, the German foreign minister, condemned "the murder of Jamshid Sharmahd by the Iranian regime in the strongest possible terms.

Jamshid Sharmahd was abducted by Iran and held for years without a fair trial, in inhumane conditions and without the necessary medical care.

[17] The day after he was put to death, Germany summoned Iran's charge d'affaires to register a formal diplomatic protest.

[37] Josep Borrell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, called Sharmahd's execution "appalling" and said it was "seriously harming" EU–Iran relations.