Iran executes 8 Kurds for attack on Parliament, Khomeini's shrine

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran executed eight Kurds on Saturday for being complicit in the 2017 attacks on the Parliament and Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini.

"At dawn on Saturday, June 7, the death sentences of 8 Kurdish citizens have been carried out,” read a report by Hangaw Human Rights Organization. The executions were confirmed by Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.

On June 7, 2017, gunmen stormed the parliament and simulataneously attacked the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini. Twelve people were killed and 42 injured in the ISIS-claimed attacks.

Most were charged with sedition, causing “corruption on earth”, illegally entering the country, and carrying firearms and tear gas grenades. The court also found them to be members of ISIS or al-Qaeda.

“The death sentences of eight Daesh terrorist complicit in the attack on the parliament’s building and the shrine of Khomeini, for the purpose of implementation, have been sent to the executioner,” Moussa Ghzanfarabadi, the head of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, told Tasnim.

More than 26 people have been charged. Some had been active in the ISIS conflict, according to Iranian intelligence, then entered the country from Iraq in mid-February 2017 and remained holed-up in the Kurdish city of Kermanshah until 24 hours before the attacks.

The Kurdistan Region shares a border with Iran. The KRG immediately condemned the "terrorist acts" and sent its condolences. 

Iran carries out the second-most capital punishment executions per year in the world.