Britain pleads for life of confessed sanctions buster

Mehdi Shams, an Iranian businessman, was sentenced to death in Iran last month
Mehdi Shams, an Iranian businessman, was sentenced to death in Iran last month

Britain is to plead for the life of an Iranian businessman who boasted that he ran a multibillion-dollar nuclear sanctions busting operation from a Surrey mansion.

Mehdi Shams, an Iranian businessman who was sentenced to death in Iran last month, holds a British passport. UK officials are seeking consular access to him in Tehran.

Mr Shams had well-documented associations with a number of companies and individuals who had faced international sanctions for their links to oil smuggling and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

His self-confessed sanctions busting was run from a £2 million mansion in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

Mr Shams was granted citizenship in 2011 under an investor’s programme five years after coming to the UK. The case raises questions over the scrutiny imposed by the authorities