Iran tries leader of US-based terror group
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The man, Jamshid Sharmahd, is facing accusations of planning and directing terrorist acts in Iran, which included a 2008 bombing in Shiraz.
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Jamshid Sharmahd attends the first hearing of his trial on February 6 in Iran (AFP)
Iran on Sunday put on trial the leader of a US-based terrorist group, charging him with being behind a deadly mosque bombing that took place in 2008.
Jamshid Sharmahd, a 66-year-old Iran-born German national and US resident, was tried in public and charged with planning and directing terrorist acts, which carries a death sentence in Iran.
Sharmahd, leader of the Tondar terrorist group, is believed to be behind the bombing in a mosque in Shiraz, southern Iran, which took place on April 12, 2008, and killed 14 people and injured nearly 300 others.
Iranian authorities arrested the man in August 2020, and he is also accused of having made contact with FBI and CIA officers, as well as attempting to contact Israeli Mossad agents.
A representative of those affected by the crime asked the court for "the most severe punishment" for Sharmahd.
Prosecutors screened videos in court detailing some of the group's terrorist acts. One of the videos also showed the defendant saying, "We are not ashamed to kill anyone."
Tondar, also known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, wants to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and it is classified as a terrorist organization in Iran.
Sharmahd had moved to the US in 2003, where he made statements hostile to Iran and Islam as a whole on satellite television channels.
Several people have been convicted and received capital punishment over links to the group and taking orders from a US-based Iranian CIA agent in an attempt to assassinate a senior Iranian official.
Two members confessed to planning to assassinate officials, and they were tried and convicted.
Meanwhile, Sharmahd's trial is still ongoing.
