Iran executes Swedish-Iranian over alleged terrorism

Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, called the execution ‘inhumane’

Iran has executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident convicted of leading an Arab separatist group accused of attacks including one on a military parade in 2018 that killed 25 people.

Habib Farajollah Chaab, also known as Habib Asyoud, had been a leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, an Arab separatist movement that has conducted oil pipeline bombings and other attacks in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province. That group had claimed the 2018 attack in its immediate aftermath.

Chaab’s execution comes as a Swedish court last year sentenced an Iranian to life in prison over his part in the 1988 mass executions in Iran at the end of its war with Iraq. Tehran, which has used prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West, reacted angrily to that sentence. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high between Iran and the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme as well – and at least one more prisoner with Western ties faces a possible execution.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency confirmed Chaab’s execution by hanging in a lengthy statement. It identified him as the leader of the militant group and alleged, without providing evidence, that he had ties to Swedish, Israeli and US intelligence services. It accused his group of killing or wounding 450 people over the years, including multiple attacks on government offices and other sites.

It also for the first time clearly identified Iranian intelligence officers as being behind Chaab’s abduction, saying that its “unknown soldiers” captured him in Turkey in November 2019.

Sweden‘s foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, reacted with “dismay” to Chaab’s execution, saying Sweden had pleaded with Iran not to carry it out. “The death penalty is an inhumane and irrevocable punishment, and Sweden, together with the rest of the [European Union], condemns its use under all circumstances,” he said in a statement.

Sweden’s Nordic neighbours, Finland and Norway, also strongly condemned the execution, underlying their stance against the death penalty. “I am appalled,” said Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto.

Tensions have already escalated between Iran and Sweden over the life imprisonment of Hamid Noury, an Iranian convicted in Sweden of committing grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The end of the war saw mass executions of an estimated 5,000 Iranian prisoners, including those from an exiled opposition group and others.

The 2018 attack in Iran targeted a military parade in Ahvaz in Khuzestan, the chaos captured live on state television. Militants disguised as soldiers opened fire, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 60 others in the deadliest attack to strike Iran in years. A spokesperson for the separatist group claimed the assault shortly after in a televised interview. Isis also claimed the attack, though it offered factually incorrect details about the assault.

In recent months, Iran has carried out other executions after the months of unrest over the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the country’s morality police. In January, Iran executed a former high-ranking defence ministry official and dual Iranian-British national, Alireza Akbari, accused of spying. The UK government had strongly condemned the execution.

Iran is one of the world’s most active executioners.

Associated Press