The Iran regime recently demonstrated the brutality it is willing to display against dissidents in its own country – and even those who having been living in the United States for years – when it returned the body of an Iranian citizen who had been living in California to his American family with the man’s tongue and heart removed.
Reports of the number of protestors Iranian authorities have gunned down in recent weeks have ranged from 1,000 to more than 12,000. But human rights groups and attorneys are also concerned about attacks against Iranian dissidents traveling abroad or even on U.S. soil, or those living in the United States who have spoken out against the Iranian government.
The body in question belonged to Jamshid “Jimmy” Sharmahd, an Iranian citizen and “freedom advocate” who defected to the United States and was living in California legally. Iranian forces abducted him abroad in 2020 and hauled him back to Iran, where he faced torture and a sham trial for spying, until he was executed in 2024, according to Dylan Barket and Jason Poblete, counsel for the Sharmahd family, and a team of several other attorneys.
Last week, the Sharmahd family filed suit against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the U.S. District Court of Columbia, a largely symbolic act against Tehran to formally protest the kidnapping, torture, unlawful detention, and extrajudicial killing and mutilation of their husband and father.
In early January, Barket also wrote Trump a letter demanding concrete action to prevent Iranians from trying to target and kill dissidents on U.S. soil.
National media coverage over the last several years has focused on the Iranian assassination attempts against President Trump and his national security team. On Wednesday, Iranian state television posted a video of the assassination attempt against Trump in 2024 with text in Persian saying the next shot won’t miss.
But there has been very little press scrutiny of Iranian plots against dissidents and other legal residents and citizens of the United States on U.S. soil.
It took more than a year for Iran to return Sharmahd’s mutilated body to his family. Now the group of human rights attorneys are pressing President Trump to try to prevent any future Iranian attacks and attempted assassination attempts on U.S. soil. More than 15 years before Sharmahd was kidnapped while traveling abroad, an Iranian-hired assassin tried to kill him in California. In 2009, Mohammad Reza Sadeghnia was arrested near Los Angeles International Airport after attempting to hire a hitman to murder Sharmahd for $32,000.
Sadeghnia pled guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court and received a one-year jail sentence, which the attorneys describe as “consistent with California’s historically lenient approach toward serious offenders.”
“Even more troubling, the court permitted him to travel back to Iran, purportedly to visit an ailing parent,” the attorneys wrote. “Foreseeably, he never returned.”
After Sadeghnia’s easy escape from U.S. justice, subsequent U.S. government records revealed that he had ties to Iranian intelligence and was involved in surveillance and efforts to coordinate and facilitate assassinations of regime critics in the United States and the United Kingdom, according to the lawyers.
Still, the Obama and Biden administrations did little to rein in Iran’s belligerent behavior, whether it was broken promises on its nuclear deal or the targeting of dissidents on U.S. soil. Also, California’s weak response to an Iranian assassin operating in its state signaled weakness and left other dissidents vulnerable, the attorneys argued.
“[It] communicated the worst possible message: That hostile nations like Iran can target dissidents in the United States and evade meaningful accountability,” they asserted.
“For years, Iran has openly flouted U.S. law and every international obligation placed upon it—enriching uranium, conducting cyberattacks and targeting dissidents in America, and around the world, without fear of consequence,” the lawyers continued. “The failures have repeatedly signaled weakness and invited further aggression by Iran.”
In order to prevent further attempts on U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents on U.S. soil, the attorneys urged Trump to:
- Direct a comprehensive investigation of Iran-directed plots and intimidation within the United States since 2009 to expose the activities and ensure that strong, unmistakable consequences are imposed so no foreign regime ever believes it can target people on American soil with impunity.
- Urge DOJ and FBI to review the Sadeghnia matter with California authorities and report exactly which procedural failures enabled Sadeghnia’s flight back to Iran.
- Direct the FBI, in coordination with ICE, CBP, DHS, DOJ’s National Security Division, the ODNI, the CIA, and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, to create unified policies and procedures that close the gaps between state and federal authority that allow foreign operatives to evade meaningful accountability.
- Meet with the Sharmahd family to discuss accountability for Sharmahd’s murder and protections for dissidents who are targeted by foreign regimes while living in the United States.
“This is not only about Jimmy’s case,” the letter concludes. “It is about reminding our adversaries that foreign operatives are not welcome in the United States of America, and those who target Americans—whether through intimidation or acts of violence—will face consequences, not leniency.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Tuesday, Trump encouraged the people of Iran to “keep protesting.”
“TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!!”
The president followed up Wednesday afternoon, noting that he has “been notified” that Iran has agreed to stop the killing of protesters.
“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping. It’s stopped. It is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions …” he told reporters. “I’ve been told that on good authority. We will find out about it.”
