Further Articles about The Arrest & Jailing of The World of Yaad's Leader, Mehdi Zand

"Three Men Given Combined Sentence of 11 Years for Assault and Violent Disorder" is the headline from the Hemel Hempstead site on City Local, with the full article available here.

Meanwhile, the online forum Smeggy's offered this headline: "Leader of Religious Movement (Mehdi Zand) Jailed for Thugger", and full post is available here.

Mehdi Zand is "Spending Everlasting Life in Jail" According to Religious Watch Article

A new article has been published regarding the violent assault that Mehdi Zand, the leader of The World of Yaad, and his two followers carried out on two former members of the group. The full article can be found on Religious Watch's website. The text can also be found below.

Spending Everlasting Life in Jail...Leader of religious movement jailed for thuggery

Three members of a religious movement who attacked two former followers have been jailed for a total of 11 years.

The victims were members of The World of Yaad, which claims to hold the secret to everlasting life.

They angered their attackers after they left the religion, and were also embroiled in a bitter business dispute with them.

The trio forced their way into a restaurant owned by the victims and made threats before seriously injuring one of the victims, who lives in Rickmansworth. The man received serious facial injuries and has since undergone facial reconstruction.

Francesco Zand was jailed for seven years for grievous bodily harm with intent and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent. Mohammed Kashefi, who pleased guilty to actual bodily harm, received a two year prison term. Mehdi Zand, the leader of The World of Yaad, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to violent disorder.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Brown said: This was a violent targeted attack on two individuals over both the ownership of the restaurant and simply because of the injured parties' disassociation with Mehdi Zand's movement.

Mehdi Zand, Leader of The World of Yaad, and Followers Given 11 Year Prison Sentence

Mehdi Zand, leader of The World of Yaad, has been given a sentence of 2 years in jail after pleading guilty on 15 July to violent disorder. This means that he will be serving at least a further 6 months in prison, when taking into the amount of time he had already spent in prison ahead of the trial for this heinous crime, to which he and his two followers originally pleaded innocent.

These two followers, Francesco Zand and Mohammed Kashefi, also pleaded guilty on 15 July and were given jail sentences of 7 years and 2 years respectively on 25 September at the sentencing by judge Catterson. Francesco Zand had earlier pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, while Kashefi pleased guilty to actual bodily harm.

There are a number of news articles circulating about this incident, where Mehdi Zand and his followers attacked two former members of the group and inflicted immense harm to them at a restaurant in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire in the UK.

You can read the news articles by clicking on the following links:

• Religious sect members jailed after attack on former members in the Uxbridge Gazzette (note that the same article can be found on the WorldWide Religious News website)
• Three men given combined sentence of 11 years for assault and violent disorder published by the Hertfordshire Constabulary
• Trio jailed for vicious restaurant attack in the Watford Observer

It seems that Wikipedia has also added Mehdi Zand to its 'List of Convicted Religious Leaders'.

You can also see previous posts on this site and the ones listed below for further background on this violent attack:

• Previous article from the Watford Observer
• Previous article from the Ealing Times
• The Truth about Mehdi Zand website