According to his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen and US resident, is facing dire health conditions as a result of the prison authorities' failure to provide proper medical treatment. Sharmahd suffers from Parkinson's disease and his health has been deteriorating rapidly, putting his life at risk. After making a rare phone call to his family from prison, Gazelle Sharmahd revealed that her father is almost unable to walk, talk, or even breathe properly. His advanced stage Parkinson's makes it nearly impossible for him to perform basic functions, and he is in constant pain. Sharmahd was abducted in Dubai and forcibly transferred to Iran in 2020, according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The Iranian government has claimed that he was detained as part of a complex operation. He was subsequently put on trial and convicted of corruption on earth, resulting in a death sentence. Sharmahd's family, however, vehemently denies the allegations made against him in Iran, including their claim that he was involved in a blast in the southern city of Shiraz in 2008. Human rights group Amnesty International has documented that Sharmahd has been subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, and other forms of ill treatment. His daughter revealed that his teeth have been broken, likely as a result of torture or malnourishment, and he is unable to enunciate words or chew and eat properly. Sharmahd has been held in solitary confinement for over 1,185 days, which has taken a severe toll on his mental and physical well-being. He experiences severe chest pains whenever he attempts to walk in his cramped cell, and his feet remain constantly swollen.

The family is unaware of his exact location within Iran's prison system. Gazelle Sharmahd, a critical care nurse who specializes in coronary care, expressed concern that her father's life is in grave danger due to the inhumane conditions of his confinement. She warned that he is at risk of suffering a heart attack. Despite being subjected to unlawful sham-trials and facing a death sentence, Sharmahd has received no reprieve. The family is disheartened by the fact that he was not included in a September deal that secured the release of five American citizens from Iranian prisons.

Sharmahd's case is not an isolated incident of US residents being detained abroad. Another US resident, Shahab Dalili, remains imprisoned in Iran since his arrest in 2016. The families of both Dalili and Sharmahd argue that they should be considered US nationals under the 2020 Levinson Act, which was named after former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 and is presumed to have died in Iranian custody.

Activists contend that Iran continues to hold several foreign nationals even after the US deal, accusing the regime of employing hostage-taking as a deliberate strategy to extract concessions from the West. Among those still held is Swedish national Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to death on espionage charges, a claim vehemently rejected by his family. The case of Jamshid Sharmahd highlights the urgent need for international intervention to address the unjust detention and mistreatment of individuals like him, who suffer at the hands of oppressive regimes.