Iran
Habib Farajollah Chaab, the Swedish-Iranian dissident charged with "corruption on earth," pictured walking into a court room on March 12, 2023. Photo: Mizan news agency
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s supreme court upheld Sunday the death sentence of a Swedish-Iranian dissident accused of terrorism and “spreading corruption on earth,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
Habib Farajollah Chaab, a Sweden-based dissident from Iran’s Arab minority, led the Swedish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) and was accused of a deadly attack on a military parade in September 2018 in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province, which killed around 30 people, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He has been held in Iran since late 2020 after disappearing during a visit to Turkey, after which he appeared a month later on Iranian state television and claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Such videos are common in Iran, and are frequently condemned by rights groups arguing that they are often obtained under duress.
“The death sentence of ‘Habib Farajollah Chaab’ on charges of corruption in the land through the formation, management, and leadership of a rebel group … and the design and execution of numerous terrorist operations … was confirmed and approved by the Supreme Court,” Mizan said.
The court ruling dismissed the appeal of Chaab’s lawyer against his execution and said that his death sentence is “confirmed and final.”
Iran is one of the world’s top executioners with the rate skyrocketing after current Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021.
In 2022, Iran recorded its highest known execution figure since 2017.
In its annual world report on global rights conditions in 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Iran for conducting unfair trials and obtaining confessions under duress, as well as for charges brought against dual nationals.
Habib Farajollah Chaab, a Sweden-based dissident from Iran’s Arab minority, led the Swedish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) and was accused of a deadly attack on a military parade in September 2018 in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province, which killed around 30 people, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He has been held in Iran since late 2020 after disappearing during a visit to Turkey, after which he appeared a month later on Iranian state television and claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Such videos are common in Iran, and are frequently condemned by rights groups arguing that they are often obtained under duress.
“The death sentence of ‘Habib Farajollah Chaab’ on charges of corruption in the land through the formation, management, and leadership of a rebel group … and the design and execution of numerous terrorist operations … was confirmed and approved by the Supreme Court,” Mizan said.
The court ruling dismissed the appeal of Chaab’s lawyer against his execution and said that his death sentence is “confirmed and final.”
Iran is one of the world’s top executioners with the rate skyrocketing after current Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021.
In 2022, Iran recorded its highest known execution figure since 2017.
In its annual world report on global rights conditions in 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Iran for conducting unfair trials and obtaining confessions under duress, as well as for charges brought against dual nationals.
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