By Fariba Raad | 2025-03-13

Less than five months after German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd was executed inside Tehran's Evin Prison, another German citizen has been detained at the facility, according to media reports.

Western countries have for years accused the Iranian regime of detaining their nationals on trumped-up charges in a policy of state hostage-taking to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.

The detention of the unnamed German citizen -- first reported March 1 by Finland-based journalist Kambiz Ghafouri -- is the latest example of the Iranian regime's so-called "hostage diplomacy."

The European Parliament in January condemned the Iranian regime's practice of detaining citizens of European Union (EU) member states, demanding the release of Olivier Grondeau, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, among others.

Despite repeated warnings, the Islamic Republic has continued to imprison Western nationals with impunity.

"It has become common practice for Iranian officials to invite or lure Westerners, often journalists with fondness for Persian culture and history, with promises of warm reception and gifts," said Berlin-based Iran expert Babak Taghvaee.

"Once in Iran, the regime seizes the opportunity to arrest them and use them as bargaining chips," he told Pishtaz.

Tehran's hostage playbook

"Some hostages are arrested to obtain something in return," said Iran expert and researcher David Rigoulet-Roze of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.

This could include "the release of people, in particular Iranians convicted in Europe for involvement in terrorist acts and war crimes," he told Pishtaz.

Another motivation is to recover frozen Iranian funds held overseas.

Sweden's government on March 7 summoned Tehran's ambassador, demanding the immediate release of ailing Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been on death row since 2017.

Swedish officials insisted on his access to medical care and repeated their request for a prison visit, AFP reported March 7.

British tourists Craig and Lindsay Foreman were detained in Kerman in January during a five-day passage through Iran.

The couple was traveling by motorcycle from Armenia to Australia when authorities charged them with espionage, the BBC reported.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala's January 8 release to Rome coincided with Italy freeing Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian engineer accused of supplying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with drone technology.

The drone technology was used in a deadly attack on US soldiers in Jordan.

In June, Tehran freed two Swedes -- EU diplomat Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi -- in exchange for former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury, AFP reported.

Noury was serving a life sentence in Sweden after being convicted of crimes against humanity for his role in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.