Daughter of Abandoned Hostage Says Prisoner Deal Was Timed for Iran President’s NYC Trip

The daughter of a U.S. resident sentenced to death in Iran but left out of the recent high-profile prisoner swap slammed the Biden administration’s decision to let Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi come to New York for this week’s U.N. meeting — and asserted that the deal and Raisi’s admission to the U.S. are linked.

“It adds insult to injury that we have right now. Hostages are left to die, and the hostage-takers are invited here, given a big podium to speak,” said Gazelle Sharmahd, who lives in California. Her father, Jamshid Sharmahd, a dual Iranian-German citizen and journalist with U.S. residency, was kidnapped from Dubai in 2020 and taken to Iran, where he was sentenced to death by an Iranian court for charges that involved his criticism of the regime.

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Jimmy Quinn

Jimmy Quinn is the former national security correspondent for National Review.

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The daughter of a U.S. resident sentenced to death in Iran but left out of the recent high-profile prisoner swap slammed the Biden administration’s decision to let Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi come to New York for this week’s U.N. meeting — and asserted that the deal and Raisi’s admission to the U.S. are linked.

“It adds insult to injury that we have right now. Hostages are left to die, and the hostage-takers are invited here, given a big podium to speak,” said Gazelle Sharmahd, who lives in California. Her father, Jamshid Sharmahd, a dual Iranian-German citizen and journalist with U.S. residency, was kidnapped from Dubai in 2020 and taken to Iran, where he was sentenced to death by an Iranian court for charges that involved his criticism of the regime.