TEHRAN, Iran — Iran mentioned Sunday it has executed two members of the exiled opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq after convicting them of finishing up assaults on public and civilian infrastructure.
The judiciary’s official information web site, Mizan On-line, reported that Behrouz Ehsani Eslamlou and Mehdi Hasani had been hanged on Sunday morning after being discovered responsible of utilizing improvised mortar launchers to focus on residential areas, academic establishments and authorities buildings.
The report mentioned Eslamlou had a protracted historical past with the group, relationship again to the Nineteen Eighties. He was beforehand imprisoned, rejoining the group after his launch.
Mizan mentioned he was arrested whereas attempting to cross the border into Turkey. Authorities mentioned they discovered firearms, ammunition, supplies for assembling mortars and instruments for altering his look in his possession.
The semi-official Tasnim information company added that Eslamlou had been tasked by group leaders primarily based in Albania to return to Iran and set up underground terror cells. His mission, in accordance with the report, included coaching and directing assaults towards each authorities and civilian targets.
State media reported that the 2 had been concerned in acts of vandalism towards public property, gathering intelligence, filming their actions and sending the footage for dissemination by way of the group’s affiliated media networks.
Iranian courts charged the lads with a number of offenses, together with waging warfare towards the state, conspiracy, sabotage and membership in a terrorist group. Prosecutors accused them of plotting to destabilize nationwide safety and harm public property.
The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, as soon as a Marxist-Islamist group that opposed Iran’s monarchy, backed the 1979 Islamic Revolution however later broke with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s authorities. It carried out a collection of lethal bombings and assassinations within the Nineteen Eighties and supported Saddam Hussein through the Iran-Iraq warfare — stances that also provoke widespread resentment inside Iran. The group is now largely based in Albania however claims to function a clandestine community inside Iran.
The final identified execution of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq members earlier than Sunday happened in 2009, following their conviction in reference to an tried bombing in Tehran’s central Enghelab Sq..