DUBAI, May 6 (Reuters) – Iran executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident on Saturday convicted of leading an Arab separatist group accused of attacks, including one on a 2018 military parade that killed 25 people, state television reported.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador to protest the execution of Habib Farajollah Chaab, which it confirmed took place earlier in the day.
Chaab had been sentenced to death for being “corrupt on earth”, a capital offense under the strict laws of the Islamic republic.
He was put on trial by Iran in 2022 on charges of leading the Arab Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, which seeks an independent state in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in southwestern Iran, and of planning and carrying out “numerous attacks and terrorist operations”.
Iran said in 2020 that its security forces detained Chaab in Turkey and brought him into the country, without giving details of his capture.
Swedish 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 inhuman and irreversible punishment and Sweden, along with the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances,” he declared.
Iran has maintained tense relations with its ethnic minorities, which include Arabs, Kurds, Azeri and Baluch, accusing them of siding with neighboring countries.
Arabs and other minorities have long complained of discrimination in Iran, a charge the Islamic republic denies. (Reporting by the Dubai newsroom, additional reporting by Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm. Editing in Spanish by Javier Leira)
Source: Ambito
