German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, who Iran previously claimed was executed last week, died before the sentence could be carried out, the country's judiciary said on Tuesday.
Judiciary spokesman Ali Asghar Jahangir said authorities were ready to execute Mr Sharmahd "but fate offered no reprieve".
“He died before the execution could proceed,” he was quoted by the judiciary's Mizan news agency as saying.
Mr Sharmahd, a long-time US resident, was accused by Iran of sharing information on missile launch sites and planning a mosque bombing that killed 14 people, claims denied by his family and human rights groups. Iran's judiciary announced his execution last Monday after he was convicted of "corruption on Earth", a charge punishable by death.
Amnesty International said Mr Sharmahd had received a “grossly unfair trial", a claim often levelled at Tehran's judiciary by rights groups, which say Iran carries out closed-door trials with no due process. His execution prompted renewed condemnation of Iran, where more than 660 people have been executed this year, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).
Mr Sharmahd's daughter, who had campaigned for his release and accused Washington of abandoning her father, said Iran "must be punished" for his death. “We do not want any statements or condolences that do not include the immediate return of my father, dead or alive, and a severe punishment for the Islamic regime murderers,” Gazelle Sharmahd wrote on X last week.
Germany closed Iranian consulates in Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt in response to Mr Sharmahd's execution, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock branding Tehran "an inhumane regime". Iran has hit out at Berlin over the move, with Mr Jahangir saying Germany has no right to "interfere" in its judicial process.
"It is our legal right to deal with the crimes of our own citizens," he said on Tuesday.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said Tehran claimed Mr Sharmahd died of a stroke. The announcement aimed "to prevent further action from the European Union" in response to the execution, added Mr Amiry-Moghaddam, who called for an independent delegation to be sent to Iran to verify the cause of death.
Three others were sentenced to death in West Azerbaijan province on Tuesday, the judiciary announced, saying the trio were involved in the Israeli assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was shot dead in 2020. Mr Jahangir said the men were "Israeli spies" who had smuggled weapons into the country as part of the assassination operation.
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