An Iranian-German dissident, Jamshid Sharmahd, whose arrest was announced in August 2020, has been sentenced to death for his alleged role in an attack that took place in 2008, Tehran judicial authorities said today.
“Jamshid Sharmahd, leader of the terrorist group Tondar, was sentenced to death for corruption in the country for planning and directing terrorist actions,” the court note said.
The 66-year-old detainee appeared before a Tehran court in February 2022 accused of taking part in an attack on a mosque in Shiraz, in the south, that killed 14 people in April 2008.
The court also accused him of having maintained contacts with “agents of the FBI and the CIA” and of having “attempted to contact agents of the Israeli Mossad”.
Sharmahd’s defenders in Germany had rejected these accusations in February 2022, urging Berlin to “act immediately” to “save the life” of that citizen.
Iran had announced in August 2020 the arrest of Sharmahd, who was then residing in the United States, in a “complex operation”, without specifying where or how or when the suspect was detained.
Born in Tehran, Sharmahd had lived in the United States since 2003, where he was notorious for his statements against the Islamic Republic on Persian-language satellite channels.
Also known as the Monarchist Association of Iran, the Tondar (Persian for “Thunder”) group claims to want to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Tehran sparked a wave of international outrage after the execution in January of a former British-Iranian defense official Alireza Akbari, convicted of espionage.
Iran has already sentenced German-Iranian human rights activist Nahid Taghavi, 67, to 10 years and 8 months in prison after her arrest in October 2020, allegedly for belonging to an illegal group.
Source: TSF
