Iran publicly executed two men on Saturday, July 8, announced Mizan Online, the site of the judiciary. Accused of being involved in the attack, claimed by the Islamic State organization, against a Shiite shrine in Shiraz, in the south of the country, which left thirteen dead and thirty injured last October, the two men were hanged dawn on a street in Shiraz.
Mizan Online identified the two executed men as Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeem Hashem Qatali, without giving further details. According to the official IRNA news agencythe executions took place near the shrine, a very important Shiite pilgrimage site in Iran.
In March, a court sentenced them to death after convicting them of “corruption on earth”, “armed rebellion” and “undermining national security”. They were also charged with belonging to the Islamic State organization and “conspiracy against the security of the country”.
Kazem Moussavi, the head of the judicial authority of the province of Fars, of which Shiraz is a part, then declared that they were directly involved in the armament, supply and logistics of the main perpetrator of the attack. The latter, identified by Iranian media as Hamed Badakhshan, died of injuries sustained during his arrest, according to the authorities.
Prison sentences
Three other defendants in this case were sentenced to five, fifteen and twenty-five years in prison for their membership in the Islamic State organization, according to Moussavi.
In November, authorities said that twenty-six “takfiri terrorists” from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan had been arrested in connection with the attack. In Iran, a country with a Shiite majority, the term “takfiri” generally refers to jihadists or supporters of radical Sunni Islam.
The Islamic State organization claimed its first attack in Iran in 2017 when gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the seat of Parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, killing seventeen people and injuring dozens.
Last October’s attack, which is among the deadliest in Iran in recent years, came more than a month after protests erupted across the country over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.