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Iran Executes Man Convicted for Killing Guards Soldier in 2017 Unrest

People protest in Tehran, Iran December 30, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. (Reuters)
People protest in Tehran, Iran December 30, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. (Reuters)
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Iran Executes Man Convicted for Killing Guards Soldier in 2017 Unrest

People protest in Tehran, Iran December 30, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. (Reuters)
People protest in Tehran, Iran December 30, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media. (Reuters)

Authorities on Wednesday executed an Iranian for killing an elite soldier during anti-government unrest in 2017, Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said, drawing condemnation from a rights group.

Mostafa Salehi, one of several men sentenced to death for their roles in anti-government protests in recent months, was convicted of shooting Sajjad Shah-Sanai, a member of the Revolutionary Guards.

His execution was carried out as a retribution sentence demanded by the victim’s parents, ISNA said.

The unrest of late 2017 and early 2018 began as demonstrations against economic hardship that spread across the country, triggering violence that killed 21 people and led to thousands of arrests, according to officials.

The economy is again in freefall, crippled by US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, and activists say the death sentences against Salehi and others are aimed at intimidating future protesters. Iran’s clerical rulers have denied this.

“The silence of the international community about the execution of Salehi can be considered a green light for more executions,” said Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, in a statement.

In July, the judiciary suspended the executions of three other men linked to anti-government protests last November, after the hashtag “Don’t execute” was tweeted millions of times in Iran’s Farsi language by Iranians inside and outside the country.

Salehi was executed in Isfahan “at the request of (Shah-Sanai’s) parents,” ISNA said, quoting a statement from the province’s justice department.

Under Iranian religious law, the family of a victim of murder and some other crimes can demand the death of the guilty party, or commute the sentence in return for financial compensation.

Iranian officials have accused arch-foe the United States and government opponents living in exile of fomenting unrest.

In June, Iran’s judiciary said it had sentenced to death Ruhollah Zam for allegedly fueling the late 2017 riots on social media.

Zam, a Paris-based journalist-turned-activist, was detained in 2019 after apparently being lured to Iraq, according to the Revolutionary Guards.

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World

Iran Says US Claim on Plot to Kill Israeli Ambassador in Mexico 'Absurd'

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iran Says US Claim on Plot to Kill Israeli Ambassador in Mexico 'Absurd'

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)

Iran on Monday dismissed accusations by the United States that Tehran had attempted to kill the Israeli ambassador in Mexico, describing the claim as "absurd".

"We found this claim very ridiculous and absurd," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press briefing, adding that it was part of an attempt "to destroy Iran's friendly relations with other countries".

Following Washington's accusation on Friday of the assassination attempt, Israel's foreign ministry thanked Mexican authorities "for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran".

But Mexico's foreign ministry later said it had "received no information" on the alleged plot, and Iran's embassy in Mexico called it "a great big lie".

A US official said Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force initiated the plot in late 2024 and that it was disrupted earlier this year.

The alleged plot involved recruiting operatives through Iran's embassy in Venezuela, whose leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, maintains a tactical alliance with Tehran.

"The entire matter was fabricated," Baqaei said on Monday.

In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war during which the US briefly joined with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24.

World

South Korea’s Ousted Leader Yoon Indicted for Flying Drones over North Korea 

19 November 2024, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: Then South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a plenary session during the G20 summit. (Alexandre Durao/G20/dpa) 
19 November 2024, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: Then South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a plenary session during the G20 summit. (Alexandre Durao/G20/dpa) 
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South Korea’s Ousted Leader Yoon Indicted for Flying Drones over North Korea 

19 November 2024, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: Then South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a plenary session during the G20 summit. (Alexandre Durao/G20/dpa) 
19 November 2024, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: Then South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a plenary session during the G20 summit. (Alexandre Durao/G20/dpa) 

South Korea’s ousted conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol faces more criminal charges as prosecutors alleged Monday that he ordered drone flights over North Korea in a deliberate bid to stoke tensions and justify his plans to declare martial law.

Yoon set off the most serious political crisis in South Korea’s recent history when he imposed martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, and sent troops to surround the National Assembly. He was later impeached and removed from office and is in jail standing trial on charges including masterminding a rebellion.

His successor and liberal rival, President Lee Jae Myung, approved legislation that launched independent investigations into Yoon’s martial law stunt and other criminal allegations involving him, his wife and associates.

On Monday, Yoon and two of his top defense officials were charged with benefiting the enemy and committing abuse of power over their alleged drone flights, which came about two months before the declaration of martial law, according to a special investigation team.

North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital, Pyongyang, to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Yoon's defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, initially made a vague denial, but South Korea's military later switched to saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the North’s claim was true. Any public confirmation of South Korean reconnaissance activities on North Korea is highly unusual.

Tensions rose sharply at the time, with North Korea threatening to respond with force. But neither side took any major action and tensions gradually subsided.

When Yoon announced martial law, he briefly cited “threats from North Korean communist forces,” but focused on his fights with the liberal-controlled parliament that obstructed his agenda, impeached top officials and slashed his government’s budget bill. Yoon called the National Assembly “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”

On Monday, Park Ji-young, a senior investigator working for independent counsel Cho Eun-suk, told a briefing that her team still indicted Yoon, Kim and Yeo In-hyung, ex-commander of the military’s counterintelligence agency, over the alleged drone flying.

She said the trio “undermined the military interests of the Republic of Korea by increasing the danger of a South-North armed conflict with the purpose of setting up an environment for declaring emergency martial law,” Park said.

Park disclosed what she called memos found in Yeo's mobile phone, some of which suggest likely plots to trigger tensions with North Korea. Memos include wordings like “creating an unstable situation,” “drones" and “targets like Pyongyang” that could force North Korea to respond because of “a loss of its face.”

Park said she won't further explain about those memos due to concerns about leaks of military secrets.

There were no immediate public responses from Yoon, Kim or Yeo over their indictments. But in July, Yoon’s defense team said Yoon had maintained he wasn’t informed of the drone flights.

In January, state prosecutors indicted Yoon for allegedly directing a rebellion. It's a grave charge whose conviction only carries the sentence capital punishment or life imprisonment. Kim and Yeo have also been arrested and indicted for allegedly playing key roles in Yoon's martial law imposition.

Animosities between the Koreas worsened after Yoon took office in May 2022 with a tougher approach on North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

South Korea earlier accused North Korea of occasionally flying its own drones over South Korea, but refrained from publicly taking tit-for-tat steps. But in December 2022, South Korea announced it fired warning shots, scrambled fighter jets and flew surveillance drones over North Korea in response to what it called North Korea's first drone flights across the border in five years. Observers say that reflected Yoon's resolve to get tough on North Korean provocations.

World

Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced

Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced
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Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced

Typhoon Blows Away from the Philippines, 4 Dead and 1.4 Million Displaced

Typhoon Fung-wong blew out of the northwestern Philippines on Monday after setting off floods and landslides, knocking out power to entire provinces, killing at least four people and displacing more than 1.4 million others.

It was forecast to head northwest toward Taiwan.

Fung-wong lashed the northern Philippines while the country was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.

Fung-wong slammed ashore in northeastern Aurora province on Sunday night as a super typhoon with sustained winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph).

The 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile)-wide storm weakened as it raked through mountainous northern provinces and agricultural plains overnight before blowing away from the province of La Union into the South China Sea, according to state forecasters.

One person drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes, and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when her house collapsed on her, officials said.

In the northern mountain province of Nueva Vizcaya, a landslide buried a hillside hut in Kayapa town before dawn on Monday, killing two children and injuring their parents and a sibling, town police chief Maj. Len Gomultim said.

More than 1.4 million people moved into emergency shelters or the homes of relatives before the typhoon made landfall, and about 318,000 remained in evacuation centers on Monday.

Fierce wind and rain flooded at least 132 northern villages, including one where some residents were trapped on their roofs as floodwaters rapidly rose. About 1,000 houses were damaged, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV of the Office of Civil Defense and other officials said, adding that roads blocked by landslides would be cleared as the weather improved on Monday.

“While the typhoon has passed, its rains still pose a danger in certain areas” in northern Luzon, including in metropolitan Manila," Alejandro said. “We'll undertake today rescue, relief and disaster-response operations.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thursday due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected damage from Fung-wong, which was also called Uwan in the Philippines.

Tropical cyclones with sustained winds of 185 kph (115 mph) or higher are categorized in the Philippines as a super typhoon to underscore the urgency tied to more extreme weather disturbances.

The Philippines has not called for international help following the devastation caused by Kalmaegi, but Teodoro said the United States, the country’s longtime treaty ally, and Japan were ready to provide assistance.

Authorities announced that schools and most government offices would be closed on Monday and Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

More than 325 domestic and 61 international flights were canceled over the weekend and into Monday, and more than 6,600 commuters and cargo workers were stranded in ports after the coast guard prohibited ships from venturing into rough seas.