A Sunni extremist has been hanged in Iran after being found guilty of murdering two Shia clerics in Mashhad.
Iran on Monday hanged a Sunni extremist sentenced to death for the murder of two Shiite clerics in early April in Mashhad (northeast), announced the regional head of the Judiciary Authority.
“The death sentence against Abdolatif Moradi was carried out by hanging this morning, in the presence of a group of citizens and officials in the prison of Vakilabad in Mashhad”, declared Gholamali Sadeghi, quoted by Mizan online, the agency of press of this authority.
In early April, a 21-year-old foreign national of “Uzbek” origin stabbed two Shia clerics to death and injured a third in the courtyard of the mausoleum in front of many pilgrims at the start of the Muslim month of fasting.
The assailant was “accused of moharebeh (enemy of God in Persian) using the weapon to terrorize the population in the shrine” of Imam Reza in Mashhad, Iran’s second city, Sadeghi said.
5-10% Sunnis in Iran
On June 7, local justice announced Moradi’s death sentence, stating that his lawyer had “appealed” to the Iranian Supreme Court.
According to local media, Moradi entered illegally a year ago from Pakistan and settled in Mashhad, Iran’s main holy city.
The Iranian authorities had accused “Takfiri elements” of this attack. The term takfiri refers in Iran and in several countries to jihadist or radical Sunni Islamist groups.
A few days before this attack, the media had announced the murder of two Sunni clerics in front of a seminary in the town of Gonbad-é Kavous in the north of the country. The three alleged murderers, also Sunnis, were later arrested.
Sunnis represent around 5 to 10% of the approximately 83 million inhabitants of Iran, where Shiism is the state religion.