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
