A former Iranian diplomat who is currently a Princeton University scholar has been sentenced to 11 months in prison over his role in a corruption case in Iran.

Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian said on Monday Hossein Mousavian was an advisor in a €2-billion case in the Persian Gulf island of Kish in the 2000s.

According to Khodayian, Mousavian brokered a deal to give 200 hectares of the island and 100 thousand square meters of its territorial waters to a third party but the resort project was never carried out.

Earlier in January, his remarks in a documentary to mark Qasem Soleimani’s second death anniversary led to controversy when he gloated about how Iran’s threat to avenge Soleimani killing frightened the wife of Brian Hook, Washington’s special envoy for Iran at the time.

Advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has also called on Princeton “to dismiss him from any association or affiliation with the university without delay”, noting that “Mousavian’s affiliation with Princeton is a stain on the university’s reputation and credibility”.

UANI described him as “an agent of the Iranian regime” who is currently employed as a Middle East and nuclear policy specialist at the university.

Late in December, an American academic who was imprisoned in Iran for 1,216 days, said Mousavian is sympathetic to the Iranian regime, claiming that he stymied efforts to free him from prison.

Mousavian, who traveled to Iran to attend the funeral service of Soleimani, was Tehran’s ambassador to Germany when four Iranian dissidents were assassinated at Berlin's Mykonos restaurant in 1992.