GENEVA 

The co-chairman of Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) called Sunday for adding Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the European Union’s terror list, according to local media.

Lars Klingbeil has criticized Tehran over the conviction of a young student, German press agency DPA reported

Engineering student Samaneh Asghari was sentenced to "18 years and three months in prison despite absolutely baseless accusations," said Klingbeil, adding he was "deeply shocked" by the decision.

The IRGC should be added to the EU's terrorist list, according to a non-binding resolution that EU lawmakers approved in January, the report added.

Asghari, a children’s rights activist and an industrial engineering student at Kharazmi University, was arrested on Oct. 11 last year and detained in Evin Prison. She was later transferred to Qarchak Prison, where she remains in custody.

If her sentence is approved in the appeal stage, the maximum punishment of six years and three months will be applicable to her.

She faces a range of charges according to her indictment, including “assembly and collusion to commit a crime against internal and external security,” “disrupting public order and peace,” “sedition,” “inciting people to fight and kill each other with the intention of disrupting the country’s security,” “propaganda against the state,” “being in public without a religious hijab,” “membership in domestic groups or branches of groups whose aim is to disrupt the country’s security” and “spreading lies.”