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DUBAI, May 6 (AP) — Iran on Saturday executed an Iranian-Swedish dual national accused of masterminding a 2018 attack on a military parade that killed at least 25 people, the latest news. One of several foes Tehran has captured overseas in recent years amid tensions with the West.
Farajollah Cha’ab, also known as Habib Asyoud, was a former leader of the Arab Struggle for the Liberation of Ahvaz, an Arab separatist movement that has carried out oil pipeline bombings and other attacks in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province .
The group claimed responsibility for the 2018 attack immediately after it occurred.
Cha’ab’s execution came as a Swedish court last year sentenced an Iranian to life in prison for his involvement in mass executions at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
Tehran reacted angrily to the sentence, which uses prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
At the same time, tensions between Iran and the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program — and at least one prisoner with Western ties could face execution.
Iran’s judiciary’s Mizan news agency issued a lengthy statement confirming Cha’ab’s execution.
It identified him as the leader of the militant group and claimed, without providing evidence, that he had links to Swedish, Israeli and US intelligence. It accused his group of killing or injuring 450 people over the years, including numerous attacks on government offices and other sites.
It also included an interview with Cha’ab on state television, a feature of many Iranian trials that activists have long described as coerced confessions.
It also pinpointed for the first time that Iranian intelligence operatives were behind Cha’ab’s kidnapping, saying “unknown soldiers” captured him in Turkey in November 2019. Iran has used similar ruse to capture its enemies abroad, including the execution of exiled journalist Ruhollah Zam in 2020.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilstrom condemned Cha’ab’s execution.
“The death penalty is an inhumane and irrevocable punishment, and Sweden and other (EU) countries condemn its use in all circumstances,” he said in a statement.
Sweden’s Nordic neighbours, Finland and Norway, also strongly condemned the execution, signaling their opposition to the death penalty. “I’m shocked,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Havisto said.
The Oslo-based Iranian human rights group separately condemned the execution, saying Cha’ab’s closed-door trial was “very unfair”.
“This is an example of state terrorism in the Islamic Republic,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the group’s director.
“We hope that the EU and the Swedish government will show an adequate response to the murder of their citizens. The killing of hostages will not be tolerated.”
Tensions between Iran and Sweden have escalated over the life sentence for Hamid Noury, an Iranian who fought at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. In the final stages, he was convicted of serious war crimes and murder in Sweden.
By the end of the war, an estimated 5,000 Iranian prisoners had been mass-executed, including prisoners from exiled opposition groups and other organizations.
Iran’s 2018 attack targeted a military parade in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, and state television broadcast the chaos live.
Militants disguised as soldiers opened fire, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 60, in Iran’s deadliest attack in years. A spokesman for the separatist group announced the attack in a television interview shortly after. The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack, although it provided details of the attack that did not match the facts.
The death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after being arrested by the country’s morality police in September sparked months of unrest and other executions in Iran in recent months. In January, Iran executed a former senior Defense Ministry official and a dual Iranian-British national accused of espionage.
Also facing possible execution is an Iranian-German national living in California who Iran says planned an attack on a mosque in 2008 that killed 14 people, wounded more than 200, and carried out an attack through the little-known kingdom’s parliament. Other attacks on Iran and its Tondar militant group. His family has long said he was captured by Iranian intelligence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Iran is one of the world’s top executioners. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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