TEHRAN – On Monday, during a hearing for the case of a 2008 terrorist attack in the southcentral Iranian city of Shiraz, attorneys for the families of some of the victims accused the U.S. of helping convicted terrorist Jamshid Sharmahd.

“The United States has officially supported the Tondar terrorist group. Even the headquarters of this terrorist group was located in the United States. Iran repeatedly tried to inform the U.S. about the terrorist nature of Todar via Interpol. Not only didn’t Washington stop the group, it actually ended up supporting the terror entity,” said one of the lawyers. 

Another lawyer said the U.S. has been the main sponsor of the Tondar group, and that it has given it large sums of money in a bid to create insecurity inside Iran.  

Sharmahd, who holds German citizenship and is also a U.S. resident, was the ringleader of the Tondar (Thunder) terror organization. In February he was sentenced to death for planning a series of attacks, including a 2008 attack against a religious congregation in the city of Shiraz, Fars Province, which killed 14 people and wounded more than 200 others. 

Shortly after the attack took place, Sharmad took responsibility for the terrorist act through the media he had access to and announced that he would try to create similar instances inside Iran.  

He did end up following his plans. In 2010 he orchestrated another attack on Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in southern Tehran, which left several people injured. According to Iranian officials, he made several other attempts to carry out more attacks, all of which were thwarted by the country’s intelligence and security forces.  

Sharmahd has also been accused of helping U.S. spy agencies gather information about Iran. In particular, the 67-year-old helped with Washington’s espionage activities surrounding Iran’s ballistic missile program.

MHA/PA