Iran hangs Iranian-Swedish man over 2018 assault killing 25

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran executed an Iranian-Swedish twin nationwide Saturday accused of masterminding a 2018 assault on a navy parade that killed no less than 25 folks, one in all a number of enemies of Tehran seized overseas in recent times amid tensions with the West.

Farajollah Cha’ab, also called Habib Asyoud, had been a frontrunner of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, an Arab separatist motion that has carried out oil pipeline bombings and different assaults in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province. That group had claimed the 2018 assault in its quick aftermath.

Cha’ab’s execution comes as a Swedish courtroom final yr sentenced an Iranian to life in jail over his half within the 1988 mass executions in Iran on the finish of its struggle with Iraq. Tehran, which has used prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West, reacted angrily to that sentence. Meanwhile, tensions additionally stay excessive between Iran and the West over its quickly advancing nuclear program as properly – and no less than yet one more prisoner with Western ties faces a doable execution.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan information company confirmed Cha’ab’s execution by hanging in a prolonged assertion. It recognized him because the chief of the militant group and alleged with out offering proof that he had ties to Swedish, Israelis and U.S. intelligence companies. It accused his group of killing or wounding 450 folks through the years, together with a number of assaults on authorities places of work and different websites.

It additionally included state tv interviews with Cha’ab, a function of many Iranian trials that activists lengthy have described as coerced confessions.

It additionally clearly recognized Iranian intelligence officers as being behind Cha’ab’s abduction, saying that its “unknown soldiers” captured him in Turkey in November 2019. Iran has used comparable ruses to seize its enemies overseas, together with the exiled journalist Ruhollah Zam who was executed in 2020.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom condemned Cha’ab’s execution.

“The death penalty is an inhumane and irrevocable punishment, and Sweden, together with the rest of the (European Union), condemns its use under all circumstances,” he stated in an announcement.

Sweden’s Nordic neighbors Finland and Norway additionally strongly condemned the execution, underlying their stance towards the dying penalty. “I am appalled,” stated Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights individually condemned the execution, referring to Cha’ab’s closed-door trial as “grossly unfair.”

“This is an example of the Islamic Republic’s state terrorism,” stated Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the group’s director. “We expect that the EU and Swedish government show adequate reaction to the murder of their citizen. Killing a hostage must not be tolerated.”

Tensions already had escalated between Iran and Sweden over the life imprisonment of Hamid Noury, an Iranian convicted in Sweden of committing grave struggle crimes and homicide through the remaining part of the Iran-Iraq struggle within the Eighties. The finish of the struggle noticed mass executions of an estimated 5,000 Iranian prisoners, together with these from an exiled opposition group and others.

The 2018 assault in Iran focused a navy parade in Ahvaz in Khuzestan, the chaos captured dwell on state tv. Militants disguised as troopers opened hearth, killing no less than 25 folks and wounding over 60 others within the deadliest assault to strike Iran in years. A spokesman for the separatist group claimed the assault shortly after in a televised interview. The Islamic State group additionally claimed the assault, although it supplied factually incorrect particulars in regards to the assault.

In latest months, Iran has carried out different executions after the months of unrest over the September dying of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the nation’s morality police. In January, Iran executed a former high-ranking protection ministry official and twin Iranian-British nationwide accused of spying.

Also going through a doable execution is an Iranian-German nationwide who lived in California, a person Iran describes as planning a 2008 assault on a mosque that killed 14 folks and wounded over 200 others, in addition to different assaults via the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing. His household lengthy has stated he was captured by Iranian intelligence in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.