Iran executes political activist despite UN warnings

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has condemned the death sentence on Iranian political activist Javid Dehghan Khald and called on the Iranian authorities to halt the execution. Amnesty International has also joined OHCHR in calling on Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to reconsider the case.

In the end, the Iranian authorities have turned a deaf ear to the pleas of international bodies and carried out the sentence, executing Javid Dehghan Khald, who had been in prison on charges of cooperating with anti-regime groups, reports the Persian daily Iran International.

Khald was sentenced to death after being convicted "after a grossly unfair trial" of membership of an armed group and involvement in an ambush that killed two Revolutionary Guards, Amnesty International said.

The court relied on "confessions tainted by torture and ignored serious due process abuses committed by Revolutionary Guards officers and judicial authorities during the investigation process," Amnesty said.

The official website of the Iranian judiciary reported that the activist was a leader of the Sunni militant group Jaish Al-Adl, or Army of Justice, and that he was hanged for shooting dead two guards five years ago in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Iran has often faced criticism from world bodies and Western human rights groups for its record of human rights violations, as well as its high number of executions, the highest in the world after China, according to Amnesty International. For its part, Tehran has dismissed the criticism as unfounded and blames the attacks on a lack of understanding of its Islamic laws.

OHCHR also warns of a growing increase in violence against religious miners in the country, especially among Kurds, Ahvaz Arabs and Balochis - Khald belonged to the latter.

In recent weeks, the Iranian authorities have executed at least 19 Baloch citizens in the cities of Mashhad and Zahedan, four of them on political charges. Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province borders Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, and Pakistan. The area has long been plagued by unrest caused by drug gangs and separatist militants.