Iran hangs eight over 2017 IS attacks in Tehran

Iran announced on Saturday it had executed eight people convicted of taking part in the 2017 Islamic State (IS) attacks on the parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iran announced on Saturday it had executed eight people convicted of taking part in the 2017 Islamic State (IS) attacks on the parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran.

The assaults took place on June 7, 2017, the only such security incidents perpetrated by IS in Iran, a country deeply involved in the fight against the extremist group in Iraq and Syria since 2014. The attacks, claimed by the jihadist group, killed nearly 20 people and injured some 50 more.

The judiciary’s own official Mizan news agency announced the executions on Saturday but did not reveal when they occurred. The report gave some details about the trial in which the defendants had been convicted after the presentation of eyewitness testimony and video footage showing their participation in the attacks.

“These eight worked directly... in martyring and wounding a number of innocent compatriots,” Mizan said.

The men executed were named by Iranian news agencies as Majed Mortezai, Soleiman Mozafari, Siros Azizi, Esmail Sufi, Osman Behrouz, Rahman Behrouz, Ayoub Esmaili, and Khosro Ramezani.

The death penalty in Iran is carried out by hanging.

In the assault, several men brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles and explosives stormed the Iranian parliament where a legislative session was in progress. The resulting siege of the building lasted hours, with lawmakers trapped inside.

On the same day, IS suicide bombers targeted the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran’s southern outskirts. Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed Shah and became the first Supreme Leader in Iran until his death in 1989.

In recent years, Iran has proven to be one of the leading nations in carrying out the death penalty against its citizens. Of the 993 people executed globally in 2017, 507 of them were in Iran, according to Amnesty International.

International pressure is currently mounting for Iran to halt the impending execution of Kurdish activist Ramin Hossein Panahi, accused of membership in an armed Kurdish opposition group.

Editing by John J. Catherine