Iran Sentences Tajik Man to Death over Shiraz Attack

A photo released by Mizan from the trial of three suspects in the Shiraz attack.
A photo released by Mizan from the trial of three suspects in the Shiraz attack.
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Iran Sentences Tajik Man to Death over Shiraz Attack

A photo released by Mizan from the trial of three suspects in the Shiraz attack.
A photo released by Mizan from the trial of three suspects in the Shiraz attack.

An Iranian court sentenced to death a Tajik man for carrying out a gun attack that caused casualties on a religious site in August, the judiciary said Thursday.

The attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz, the capital of the southern Fars province, took place less than a year after a mass shooting at the same site that was later claimed by ISIS.

Nine suspects - all of them foreigners - were arrested after the August 13 attack, which killed two people and wounded seven others.

Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan said the Iranian Revolutionary Court gave Rahmatollah Norouzof two death sentences. Norouzof, described as a member of ISIS, was convicted of "sedition and collusion against the security of the country."

Two other men were sentenced to five years in prison and deportation from the country for "participating in gatherings and collusion with the intention of disrupting the country's security."

Footage and pictures published following the attack showed windows shattered by bullets and blood staining the ground.

An earlier shooting at the shrine on October 26, 2022 killed 13 people and injured 30 others. ISIS later claimed responsibility for that attack.

However, activists and human rights organizations questioned the timing and motives of these attacks that coincided with the launch of a crackdown against protests over the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.

Iran hanged two men in public on July 8 over the attack after their conviction for "corruption on Earth, armed rebellion, and acting against national security," Mizan said.

London-based rights group Amnesty International says Iran executes more people than any other country except China and hanged at least 582 people last year, the highest number since 2015.



Biden Says Israel Recovers Bodies of 6 Hostages in Gaza, Including Goldberg-Polin

(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)
(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)
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Biden Says Israel Recovers Bodies of 6 Hostages in Gaza, Including Goldberg-Polin

(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)
(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)

Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including that of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, US President Joe Biden said late on Saturday.
"Earlier today, in a tunnel under the city of Rafah, Israeli forces recovered six bodies of hostages held by Hamas," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. "I am devastated and outraged."
The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that the bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been brought to Israel.
Hamas and its armed wing did not immediately comment on the accusations, Reuters said.
At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the enclave's health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The war was triggered when Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
On Saturday, clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin. Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.
Goldberg-Polin, captured at a music festival near Gaza, appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
"He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world," Biden said. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, "have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable," Biden said.
Biden vowed that "Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages."