Tehran executes Swedish-Iranian national for terrorism

Tehran: Iran on Saturday hanged Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Chaab for “terrorism”, drawing condemnation from Sweden, in the Islamic republic’s latest use of the death penalty against dual nationals.

Chaab had been held in Iran since October 2020 after he vanished during a visit to Turkey before going on trial in Tehran, which does not recognise dual nationality.

Convicted of “corruption on earth” for heading a rebel group, he was condemned to death in December and Iran´s supreme court upheld the sentence in March.

“The death sentence for Habib Chaab... nicknamed Habib Asyud, the head of the Harakat al-Nidal terrorist group... was carried out today, Saturday morning,” the judiciary´s Mizan Online website reported.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, whose country currently holds the European Union´s rotating presidency, denounced the execution as “inhuman”.

“The death penalty is an inhuman and irreversible punishment and Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances,” Billstrom wrote on Twitter.

He added that Stockholm had contacted Tehran “and demanded that the sentence not be carried out”.

Chaab had been accused of staging attacks since 2005 “under the protection of... the Mossad and Sapo” -- the Israeli and Swedish spy agencies, respectively.

Prosecutors in Iran allege other leaders of Harakat al-Nidal are based in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, with the group receiving financial and logistical support from Saudi Arabia.

Iranian state television had aired a video of Chaab in which he claimed responsibility for a 2018 attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, the capital of the southwestern province of Khuzestan, that authorities said killed 25 people and wounded almost 250. In the footage.