Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for “terrorism” of Iranian-Swedish dissident Habib Chaab, reports the Mizan Online news agency on Sunday March 12.
Leader of the Arab Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), considered a terrorist organization by the Iranian authorities, Habib Chaab, who is in his fifties, disappeared in October 2020 after surrendering in Istanbul only to reappear a month later behind bars in Iran. His death sentence was announced on December 6.
In November 2020, Iranian television broadcast a video in which he accused himself in particular of a deadly attack committed in September 2018 during a military parade in Ahvaz, capital of the province of Khuzestan.
“Inhuman punishment”, according to the Swedish Foreign Minister
Sweden responded by saying it was seeking more clarity on this issue. “The death penalty is an inhuman and irreversible punishment, and Sweden, like the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances”Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told Agence France-Presse in an email.
The Scandinavian country, of which Mr. Chaab is a citizen, has taken steps to offer him consular assistance, but Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Six men accused of belonging to ASMLA have been sentenced to death in Iran for “following the orders of their European leaders, like Habib Nabgan and Habib Chaab”.
At least sixteen Western passport holders, including six French, are detained in Iran. Most are dual nationals. The execution in January of the Iranian-British Alireza Akbari, convicted of espionage, raised a wave of indignation. 1er March, Germany also expelled two diplomats stationed in Berlin to protest against the death sentence of the Iranian-German dissident Jamshid Sharmahd, aged 67, accused of having participated in an attack against a mosque in Shiraz, in southern Iran, which killed fourteen people in April 2008.
Iranian-Swedish relations are also strained due to the case of Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian prison official sentenced to life imprisonment at first instance in Sweden for his role in the mass executions of prisoners ordered by Tehran in 1988. His trial, which began on appeal in January, angers Tehran, which regularly denounces lawsuits “politics” and “baseless and fabricated accusations against Iran” in this file.