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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran ready to hang 14 Sunni rebels in city park
2009-07-14
TEHRAN: Iran will hang 14 members of a Sunni rebel group in public today, including a brother of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi, a semi-official news agency reported yesterday. Predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Iran says Jundollah (God's Soldiers) is part of the Sunni Islamist Al-Qaeda network and backed by the United States, Tehran's arch foe. Fars News Agency quoted a local judiciary statement as inviting families of the group's victims and other people to come and watch the executions at 6:30 am (0200 GMT) in a park in the southeastern city of Zahedan. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television reported on May 29 that Jundollah had claimed a mosque bombing the previous day in Zahedan which killed 25 people.

Fars did not mention the bombing but said those sentenced to hang were convicted of mohareb, or one who is waging war against God, and of killing innocent people. It named one of the men sentenced to death as Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of Jundollah leader Abdolmalek Rigi. Fars reported on June 6 that two members of Jundollah, including a man it also named as Abdolhamid Rigi, were hanged in Zahedan. A week earlier, three people convicted of involvement in the mosque bombing were hanged in public. Media reported that clashes broke out between supporters and opponents of a Sunni cleric in the city and six people died in an arson attack.

Jundollah says it fights for the rights of minority Sunnis in officially Shi'ite Muslim Iran. Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, where most people are minority Sunni Muslims and ethnic Baluchis. Close to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the region has seen frequent clashes between security forces and heavily armed drug smugglers, as well intermittent attacks by Sunni Baluchi rebels.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death in the Islamic state. The official IRNA news agency said yesterday three drug traffickers were put to death in central Markazi province. The European Union earlier this month denounced Iran for a spate of executions, including the hanging of 20 drug traffickers on July 4 in a jail in a city west of Tehran. A few days earlier 12 other people were executed in two other cities, including six for murder in a Tehran jail. Iran usually carries out executions in its prisons.

The human rights group Amnesty International has listed Iran as the world's second most prolific executioner in 2008 after China, and says Iran executed at least 346 people last year. Executions have increased since authorities began a campaign against "immoral behaviour" in 2007. Iran says it implements Islamic law and rejects accusations it is violating human rights. - Reuters
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
12 Jundullah terrorists to be executed
2009-07-12
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran will execute 12 Jundullah members who were involved in terrorist activities at the behest of the terror group's notorious ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi. "Sistan Baluchestan's revolutionary and appellate courts have ordered the execution of 12 members of the Jundullah terrorist group on charges of terrorism. One member of the group has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a remote town," the Chairman of Sistan and Baluchestan's Justice Department Ebrahim Hamidi, told the ISNA news agency in Zahedan on Saturday.

Hamidi added that among the charges leveled against the defendants were the responsibility for the killing of 22 people in the Tasuci incident, setting up armed roadblocks on Chabahar road, kidnapping foreign nationals, and carrying out armed robberies.

Abdolhamid Rigi - the brother of Jundullah Leader Abdolmalek Rigi - who is among the convicted had told Press TV in an interview that "since 2003, Jundullah members have masterminded fifty to sixty terrorist operations, including mass murder, hostage takings, bombings, raids, car thefts, and other acts of sabotage against civilians and the government."
Did he have any of his fingernails left when he said that?
"I was under strict orders to take part in most of these missions," he explained, while adding that he killed at least four innocent civilians with his own hands in one particular raid.

He asserted that if he had refused to conform to his brother's orders he would have been faced with serious consequences. "I would be labeled as a traitor and therefore condemned to death."

Abdolhamid Rigi was arrested by Pakistani forces and handed over to Iranian officials early last year.

Jundullah is a Pakistan-based terrorist group comprised of some members of the Baluch ethnic minority. The terrorist group is closely affiliated with al-Qaeda.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US trains Jundullah members
2009-07-02
[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior member of the Jundullah terrorist group says that the group has been trained and financed by "the US and Zionists".

Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi made the remarks in a court session held in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday.

Abdolhamid Rigi was among the thirteen members of the Jundullah who were accused of terrorist activities, Fars news agency reported.

Pakistani security forces arrested Abdolhamid last year and extradited him to Iran.

The defendants told the court that foreign spy agencies support Jundullah.

Citing the defendant's confessions, the court's judge said that after the extradition of Abdolhamid, foreign intelligence agencies had incited Jundullah members to step up their terrorist attacks in Iran including hostage takings to put pressure on Iran to release Abdolhamid.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran hangs Jundullah leaderŽs brother
2009-06-07
[Iran Press TV Latest] Two members of the Jundullah terrorist group who were involved in terrorism in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan have been executed. "Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of the notorious terrorist leader Abdolmalek Rigi, was hanged in provincial capital city Zahedan Saturday morning," ISNA quoted a source in the Justice Administration of Sistan-Baluchestan.
Pakistani authorities handed over Abdolhamid Rigi and three other members of the Jundullah group to Iran last year.
"Abdolhamid Rigi has been sentenced to death on charges of moharebe [enmity of God], through membership at his brother's terrorist cell. He was executed after his verdict had been approved by Iran's Supreme Court," the source added. "Warring against the Islamic Republic of Iran, storage of ammunition and weapons and smuggling of drugs are among other charges."

Pakistani authorities handed over Abdolhamid Rigi and three other members of the Jundullah group to Iran last year. Reza Qalandarzehi was also executed on Saturday on the same charges.

The Pakistan-based Jundullah terror group claimed responsibility for a major terrorist attack in a mosque in Zahedan near Iran's southeastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bomb blast killed 25 people and wounded 125 others last week.
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