Iran Executes Three over ‘Terrorist’ Acts, Murder

A member of Iran's special police forces checks the rope before an execution by hanging, in Tehran, Aug. 2, 2007. (Reuters)
A member of Iran's special police forces checks the rope before an execution by hanging, in Tehran, Aug. 2, 2007. (Reuters)
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Iran Executes Three over ‘Terrorist’ Acts, Murder

A member of Iran's special police forces checks the rope before an execution by hanging, in Tehran, Aug. 2, 2007. (Reuters)
A member of Iran's special police forces checks the rope before an execution by hanging, in Tehran, Aug. 2, 2007. (Reuters)

Iran hanged two men on Sunday for “terrorist acts” and another for murder and armed robbery, the judiciary’s official Mizan Online news agency said.

The three were executed early Sunday morning in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Two were named as Hassan Dehvari and Elias Qalandarzehi, arrested in April 2014 after being found with “a large amount of explosives” and weapons, AFP reported.

The pair were convicted of the abduction, bombing, murder of security forces and civilians, and of working with the militant Jaish Al-Adl (“Army of Justice“) group, according to Mizan.

Dehvari and Qalandarzehi were also arrested in possession of documents from Jaish Al-Adl on “how to make bombs.”

The third man executed was named as Omid Mahmoudzehi. He was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of civilians, Mizan said.



ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
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ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for the Taliban’s supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago.

The warrants also accuse the leaders of persecuting “other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.’”

The warrants were issued against Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the head of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, The AP news reported.

The court said in a statement that the Taliban have “severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion. In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, sought the warrants in January.

Global advocacy group Human Rights Watch welcomed the decision.

“Senior Taliban leaders are now wanted men for their alleged persecution of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people. The international community should fully back the ICC in its critical work in Afghanistan and globally, including through concerted efforts to enforce the court’s warrants," Liz Evenson, the group's international justice director, said in a statement.