The Two Ahwazi Arab Activists Have Been Executed

Chebeishat's body has been buried to his family. After hearing the news several people gathered in protest outside Mr. Chebeishat's home in a village near the town of Shoosh. Two members of Mr. Chebeishat's family have reportedly been arrested by the security forces.     IHR urges the international community to condemn execution of the Ahwazi Arab activists. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR,  said:”In the last six months 8 Ahwazi Arab activists have been executed after being subjected to unfair trials and torture.  Those responsible for these executions must be brought to justice". IHR has previously expressed concern about the situation of Ali Chebeishat, Sayed Khaled Mousavi, who were two  transferred from the Dezful prison to an unknown location in March 2014. Six other Ahwazi Arab prisoners have been executed in December 2013 and January 2014, without the families or the lawyers being noticed about the executions in advance.   Background: Ali Chebeishat, Sayed Khaled Mousavi, and Salman Chayani were arrested on 10 November 2012 in the village of Khalaf Kaab Imsallam near the city of Shush in Khuzestan Province. They were held incommunicado for seven months while denied access to lawyer and family members at the Ministry of Intelligence Detention Centre in Ahwaz in South West of Iran. Intelligence officials illegally held the three incommunicado while subjecting each to severe torture with a view to extract confession in order to implicate them in the October 2012 explosion of the Chogha Zanbil natural gas pipeline near the village of Khalaf Kaab Imsallam. On November 16, 2013, they appeared on the Press TV, “confessing” participation in the Chogha Zanbil pipeline bombing.Apart from these forced “confessions”, there is no evidence in relation to the explosion of the Chogha Zanbil natural gas pipeline. Indeed, the authorities initially declared that the explosion was an accident. Nonetheless, on 9 September 2013, Judge Sayed Mohammed Baqir Mousavi of the Second Branch of the Ahwaz Revolutionary Court convicted the three men of moharebeh and sentenced Mr. Chebeishat and Mr. Mousavi to execution and Mr. Chayani to 25 years of imprisonment in exile in Yazd in central Iran, a violation of Iran’s national code.