Iranian-German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd sentenced to death

A court in Tehran convicted him on charges of planning the bombing of a mosque in 2008

Iranian-German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd attends his trial in Tehran earlier this month. AP

Iranian-German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd has been sentenced to death by a court in Tehran after he was found guilty of planning and directing terrorist acts.

The verdict was delivered by the Revolutionary Court on Tuesday, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan website reported.

Mr Sharmahd, who has US residency, was accused of being the mastermind of the 2008 bombing at a mosque that killed 14 people and wounded more than 200 in Iran.

He was also accused of “corruption on earth”, a broad charge that has been brought against suspected terrorists, as well as religious minority activists and protesters.

Mr Sharmahd's arrest was announced in 2020 by the Intelligence Ministry, which called him “the ringleader of the terrorist Tondar group, who directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America”.

About two dozen foreigners and dual citizens are detained in Iran as hopes fade of reviving a 2015 deal on Tehran's nuclear programme, and as four months of anti-regime demonstrations rock the country.

Last month, the country executed former defence minister Ali Reza Akbari, a British-Iranian who was convicted in Tehran of spying for MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence agency, and accused of being involved in the assassination of Iran's senior nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Mr Akbari was hanged “after going through all the legal procedures and confirming the court verdict in the Supreme Court”, Mizan reported.

Also in January, Iran sentenced a Belgian aid worker to a total 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges of spying for the US, money laundering and currency smuggling.

Olivier Vandecasteele was given 12 and a half years in jail on each of three charges — espionage, collaboration with hostile governments and money laundering — and fined $1 million.

He was also sentenced to two and a half years in jail for currency smuggling.