TEHRAN: Iran has said that it hanged 20 “terrorists” in one of the Islamic republic’s biggest mass executions in recent years.
The men, hanged on Tuesday, were accused of carrying out a string of attacks against civilians and religious leaders in Iran’s western Kurdish region, state media reported.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence earlier issued a statement detailing 24 armed attacks between 2009 and 2011, including bombings and robberies, allegedly committed by the group. It said the extremists were responsible for the deaths of 21 people in three western provinces during that time.
The ministry said that as many as “102 members and followers of the… terrorist group were identified… some of whom were killed in armed clashes with police forces and some were arrested. Some of those arrested were sentenced to death while some received prison terms”.
One of the first plots linked to the group involved giving chocolates laced with poison to police officers and judiciary personnel, although no one was killed.
Prosecutor General Mohammad Javad Montazeri said the convicts, some of whom had come from abroad, followed ‘takfiri’ ideologies, a term Shia-majority Iran uses to describe Sunni terrorists.
In 2009, the group allegedly assassinated two Sunni religious leaders, Mamusta Borhan Aali and Mamusta Mohammad Sheikh al-Islam – a provincial representative of Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts.
Those hanged on Tuesday did not deserve mercy, IRIB state television quoted Montazeri as saying. “These people had committed murder… killed women and children, caused destruction and acted against security, and killed Sunni religious leaders in some Kurdish regions,” Montazeri said.
Iran regularly hangs large-scale drug traffickers. Murder, rape, armed robbery and adultery are also capital offences in Iran. In addition, those charged with “spreading corruption on Earth” and “waging war against God” can be put to death.
According to human rights group Amnesty International, Iran was one of the world’s top executioners in 2015 when it put 977 people to death, mostly on drug trafficking charges.