TEHRAN: Iran hanged two men in public on Saturday in connection with an October attack on a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz that claimed over a dozen lives, the judiciary said.
October 26 attack on the highly revered Shiite Muslim shrine of Shah Cheragh had left 13 people killed and 30 injured as the Sunni Muslim extremist group Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website, two of the perpetrators of the Shah Cheragh terrorist incident were sentenced to death in public this morning. According to the official news agency IRNA, both of them were hanged in the morning on a street near the shrine in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province.
They were identified as Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeem Hashem Qatali, according to Mizan, who did not elaborate. An Iranian court sentenced the two men to death in March after finding them convicted of “corruption on earth, armed rebellion, and acting against national security.” They were also accused of Daesh membership and “conspiracy against the security of the country.” Fars chief justice Kazem Moussavi said at the time that they were directly involved in the “arming, procurement, logistics, and guidance” of the main perpetrator.
He said the three other defendants in the case were sentenced to five, fifteen, and twenty-five years in prison for being Daesh members. According to the authorities, one of the attackers, identified as Hamed Badakhshan by Iranian media, died as a result of injuries incurred during his time in custody. In November, the Islamic Republic announced the arrest of 26 “takfiri terrorists” from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan in connection with the attack.
Takfiri refers to militants or supporters of extremist Sunni Islam in Shiite-majority Iran. The shrine attack occurred more than a month after nationwide protests erupted in response to the death in prison of a young Iranian Kurdish woman. Mahsa Amini, 22, died after being arrested by Tehran’s morality police for reportedly violating the country’s dress code for women.
Daesh claimed its first strike in Iran in 2017, when armed men and suicide bombers attacked the House of Parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people and injuring others. Public executions are uncommon in Iran, with practically all hangings taking place within jails.
According to rights groups such as London-based Amnesty International, Iran executes more people per year than any nation other than China.
