Iran sentences 3 to death over 2020 killing of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
Judiciary also says German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, jailed for pro-monarchist ‘terrorist acts,’ died before planned execution that soured Tehran-Berlin relations
Iran on Tuesday announced it had sentenced three people to death over the 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of the country’s top nuclear scientists whom Israel has accused of leading Tehran’s push to build an atomic bomb.
Separately, Iran’s judiciary said that Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd died before his execution, which was announced by Tehran late last month. His death sentence in 2023 for “terrorist attacks” had set off a diplomatic rift between Iran and Germany.
Commenting on the death sentences related to Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a Tehran press conference that the Revolutionary Court in northeast Iran’s Urmia had sentenced the three suspects to death “in the initial stage, and the case is currently in the appeal stage.”
Fakhrizadeh was killed when his car was ambushed on a highway outside the capital in November 2020, in an attack Iran blamed on Israel. Iranian authorities said the attackers used a bomb and a remote-controlled machine gun. Israel has never commented on the killing.
Jahangir told reporters, “After some investigations, three people out of eight arrested in West Azerbaijan province were accused of committing espionage for the occupying regime of Israel.”
He added that the three are also “accused of transporting equipment into Iran for the assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh under the guise of smuggling alcoholic beverages.”
In December 2022, then-judiciary spokesman Massoud Setayeshi said nine people had been charged with the capital offense of “corruption on earth” for their suspected collusion with Israel in the assassination.
Fakhrizadeh had been under US sanctions for his role in Iran’s nuclear program when he was killed. In 2018, Israel accused him of leading Iran’s efforts to develop an atomic bomb, which Iran has denied.
Meanwhile, Jahangir said that Sharmahd, the German-Iranian accused of terrorism, had “died before the execution of his death sentence.” The spokesman did not elaborate.
State media initially reported the execution of Sharmahd on October 28, following his sentencing to death by Iran’s judiciary in 2023 for carrying out “terrorist attacks.”
Islamic Republic authorities said Sharmahd, also called Jimmy, had headed a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country.
His daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, on X, had demanded proof of his execution and called for the immediate return of her father.
On behalf of the Sharmahd family thank you to everyone for your love and messages. Please know that we do not accept condolences until we have received EVIDENCE by the German and American authorities of the reported murder of my father #JimmySharmahd and the exact circumstances.… pic.twitter.com/zdHRJEhYEp
— Gazelle غزاله شارمهد (@GazelleSharmahd) November 3, 2024
Sharmahd’s death exacerbated a diplomatic rift between Tehran and Berlin, with the latter closing Iranian consulates across Germany.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Iran of playing politics with hostages and of trying to use Germany’s support for Israel in the widening Middle East conflict to justify Sharmahd’s killing.
Iran, which is publicly committed to Israel’s destruction, has funneled money and arms to terror groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen — a federation of Islamist terror groups that Iran refers to as the “Axis of Resistance.” Iran itself has also fired two massive missile barrages at Israel, in April and October, in the first direct strikes of the two countries’ decades-long shadow war.
