German-Iranian may face death penalty in Iranian trial for attack

The second trial of German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd took place in a revolutionary court in Tehran on Sunday, in what human rights activists slammed as a show trial, reported dpa.

Sharmahd could face the death penalty, if found guilty of orchestrating several attacks, including the bombing of a mosque in southern Iran in 2008 in which 14 people died and more than 200 were injured.

Sharmahd is also accused of espionage as the leader of a monarchist opposition group.

He was arrested by the Iranian secret service in Dubai in the summer of 2020, in what some have called a kidnapping. Since then he has been held in Tehran.

He previously lived in the US.

He is innocent of the charges, according to his family and Western human rights groups, who have called the case a "show trial" and demanded his early release.

Sharmahd's organization Tondar has spent years campaigning for the return of the Shah system, which was overthrown after the Islamic revolution in 1979. It is unclear how many people in Iran support the movement.

It is also unclear whether Sharmahd may receive consular assistance from the German embassy in Tehran.

He is said to be seriously ill and suffering from diabetes.