The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Iran executed seven men on Saturday
convicted of killing security personnel and a cleric in separate attacks over
the past several years, the country’s judiciary news agency reported.
According to Mizan, the judiciary’s official outlet, six of
the men were ethnic Arab separatists accused of carrying out armed attacks and
bombings in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr, in Khuzestan province, that
killed four members of the security forces.
The seventh man, identified as Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a
Kurd, was convicted of involvement in the 2009 assassination of Mamousta Sheikh
al-Islam, a pro-government Sunni cleric in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, Mizan
said.
Authorities claimed the men had ties to Israel, a charge
that rights groups say Iranian officials often use to frame domestic dissent as
foreign-backed.
Activists have raised concerns about Mohammadi Khiyareh’s
case, saying he was only 15 or 16 at the time of the assassination, arrested at
19, and imprisoned for more than a decade before his execution. Rights
advocates said his conviction was based on confessions extracted under torture
— an allegation Iran routinely denies.
Amnesty International said Iranian authorities have executed
more than 1,000 people so far in 2025, marking the highest annual figure
recorded by the group in at least 15 years.
