US resident goes on trial in Iran for allegedly planning deadly 2008 mosque bombing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The alleged chief of the militant wing of a US-based Iranian opposition group went on trial Sunday, state TV reported. He’s accused of planning a 2008 bombing at a mosque that killed 14 folks and wounded over 200.

In 2020, Iran’s intelligence service detained Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German nationwide and US resident. Iran stated he’s the chief of Tondar, the militant wing of the opposition group Kingdom Meeting of Iran.

Sharmahd’s household says he’s solely the spokesperson for the Kingdom Meeting of Iran, recognized in Farsi as Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran, and has accused Iran of kidnapping him in Dubai. His hometown is Glendora, California.

Sharmahd confessed to having a relationship with each the FBI and the CIA, state TV alleged. A state TV reporter claimed he was involved with 9 FBI and CIA brokers and his final assembly was in January 2020, with out elaborating.

Iranian state tv lengthy has been believed to be overseen by intelligence companies within the nation and its channels routinely broadcast coerced confessions.

Sharmahd’s household has accused Iran of protecting their father in “555 days of solitary confinement with out prices” previous to the listening to.

On the time of his detention, Iran alleged Sharmahd was behind the 2008 bombing that focused the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada Mosque within the metropolis of Shiraz and that he was planning different assaults round Iran. Moreover the 14 killed within the bombing, 215 had been wounded.

German citizen #JamshidSharmahd shall be tried tmrw in #Iran. @derspiegel @dwnews

He has been denied his human and due course of rights: https://t.co/izSF6amIfB.

1 Kidnapped in Dubai
2 Denied lawyer of alternative, no entry to case information
3 Blocked from household contact for final 6 months pic.twitter.com/yj7Md5GSn7

— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) February 5, 2022

Sharmahd, who helps restoring Iran’s monarchy that was overthrown within the 1979 Islamic Revolution, had been beforehand focused in an obvious Iranian assassination plot on US soil in 2009.

Iran hasn’t stated the way it detained Sharmahd, which got here in opposition to the backdrop of covert actions carried out by Iran amid heightened tensions with the US over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear take care of world powers.

Sharmahd had been in Dubai, making an attempt to journey to India for a enterprise deal involving his software program firm, his son stated. He hoped to get a connecting flight regardless of the continued coronavirus pandemic disrupting international journey.

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Display screen seize from video allegedly exhibiting German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, a US resident, in Iranian custody as a suspect in a lethal mosque bombing. (Twitter)

Western officers consider Iran runs intelligence operations in Dubai and retains tabs on the lots of of hundreds of Iranians dwelling within the city-state. Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British-Iranian nationwide Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, although Tehran has denied involvement.

The US State Division runs its Iran Regional Presence Workplace in Dubai, the place diplomats monitor Iranian media stories and discuss to Iranians.

Dubai’s motels lengthy have been focused by intelligence operatives, reminiscent of within the suspected 2010 assassination by the Israeli Mossad of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai and the remainder of the UAE have since invested much more in an elaborate surveillance community.

The Kingdom Meeting of Iran seeks to revive Iran’s monarchy, which ended when the fatally ailing Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the nation in 1979 simply earlier than the Islamic Revolution. The group’s founder disappeared within the mid-2000s.

Final week, Iran stated its intelligence models arrested the No. 2 chief of Tondar, or “Thunder” in Farsi, recognized solely as “Masmatus.”

Iran has additionally accused the group of being behind a 2010 bombing at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran that wounded a number of folks.

State TV stated some members of the family of victims of the mosque bombing attended Sunday’s listening to, which was presided over by Decide Abolghasem Salavati in Revolutionary Court docket 15 within the capital, Tehran.

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