Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February after being accused of leading a group carrying out attacks in Iran.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for dual-national Iranian-German Jamshid Sharmahd on charges of “corruption on earth”.
The court upheld an earlier conviction against Sharmahd, issued by a lower court in February, for leading a pro-monarchist group accused of planning attacks across Iran, according to the judiciary’s official news website.
“On appeal, there is no cause or evidence that would be grounds for overturning the initial verdict, and the sentence of the convict has been rendered in accordance with the law on the basis of evidence presented,” the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
The 67-year-old, who also lives in the United States and was arrested in 2020, is accused of being the leader of the US-based group Tondar (meaning “thunder” in Farsi), which has said it is trying the monarchy overthrown in a 1979 revolution.
The main charge he faced was masterminding a 2008 bombing of a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz that killed 14 people and injured hundreds.
He has also been accused of planning a series of other attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in addition to passing information to US and Israeli intelligence agencies.
It was unclear how or where Sharmahd was apprehended. His daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, previously said he was last heard from in Dubai shortly before he appeared in an Iranian state video showing him in custody.
Sharmahd’s family insists he is innocent and has called on European officials to secure his release. The German government has repeatedly condemned the handling of the case by the Iranian authorities, saying Sharmahd did not have a fair trial.
The confirmation of the verdict, which could pave the way for Sharmahd’s execution, came two days after the European Union, the United Kingdom and the US coordinated new rounds of sanctions against Tehran that they said were in response to human rights violations.
The EU has blacklisted eight Iranians, including lawmakers and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in addition to a mobile telecommunications provider. Tehran responded by blacklisting a number of European politicians and entities.