Tehran: Iran hanged the convicted leader of a Sunni rebel group yesterday for his involvement in deadly attacks in the Islamic country, state television reported.
Predominantly Shiite Iran arrested Abdul Malek Rigi in February, four months after his Jundallah (God's soldiers) group claimed a bombing which killed dozens of people, including senior officers of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
"Abdul Malek Rigi was hanged at dawn today... he was convicted for many crimes like being behind many deadly attacks...and killing dozens of innocent people," state television said.
Iran grapples with ethnic and religious tension in the southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan where authorities have responded to attacks by Sunni rebels with a spate of hangings. Rights groups and the West have condemned the hangings.
A Tehran Revolutionary court sentenced Rigi to death and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, the semi-official Fars news agency said, adding that Rigi was executed in Tehran's Evin prison in the presence of "the families of some of the victims".
"Abdul Malek Rigi's charges also included armed robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking and the formation and leading of the terrorist Jundallah group," Fars reported.
Iran says the Sunni group has links to Al Qaida and accuses Pakistan, Britain and the United States of backing Jundallah to create instability in southeast Iran, where many Sunnis live. The three countries deny the claim.
Lawsuit
"Jundallah was linked to members of foreign intelligence services, including members from America and the Zionist regime's [Israel] intelligence services under the cover of Nato," the official Irna news agency quoted a court statement as saying.
"The hanging showed Iran will not let its territory to be used by criminals...With the execution of Abdul Malek, the disgraceful stigma of our tribe was eliminated," Bashir Ahmad Rigi, the chief of Rigi's tribe, was quoted by Irna as saying.
A leading lawmaker said Iran planned to file a lawsuit at relevant international courts against Britain and the United states for supporting Rigi.
See also Page 12
Tehran (AFP) Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, who is in the forefront of the campaign against the last year's presidential election, on Sunday pledged to continue his fight, a year to the day after the death of a young woman at a Tehran protest rally.
In an open letter to Iranians posted on his Sahamnews.org website, Karroubi attacked the authorities for jailing protesters and "filling cemeteries" with those killed in the post-election unrest.
A deadly demonstration in the capital against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to the killing of 10 people, including Neda Agha Soltan.
Meanwhile, Zahra Rahnavard, wife of main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, urged for the "unconditional" release of prisoners as she marked Agha Soltan's death.
"The current establishment plans and pursues violence such as the arrest and attacks of senior clerics' houses. I advise you to free prisoners unconditionally instead of these acts," she said on Mousavi's website, Kaleme.com.
