Iranian Convicted Of Terrorism Exchanged With Belgian Hostage In Oman

Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that the man, who was convicted of the capital crime of "corruption on earth" -- a vague Islamic law term interpreted among the highest crimes by the Islamic Republic and punishable by death -- was executed in the city of Maragheh in Eastern Azerbaijan.

“The international community cannot endorse such medieval practices,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding the execution shows the “true face of a government that tries to prolong its life with cruelty, humiliation and intimidation of society.”

Iranian news websites showed images of what appeared to be hundreds of people gathered to watch the execution behind a security tape as prosecutors spoke to reporters.

The man was shown blindfolded next to his two executioners in balaclavas. Another image showed him standing on a chair ahead of the execution with the noose around his neck and hanging from a rope attached to a crane once dead.

Although the nature of the alleged crimes was not immediately clear, the convict, who was first arrested some five years ago, was found guilty of charges related to his sexual relations with women.

In Iran, more people are executed each year than in any other country other than China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International, but public executions are relatively rare, with most hangings taking place inside prisons.

There were no public executions in 2021, according to IHR.

The international rights group said Wednesday that Hossein Shahbazi's trial was grossly unfair and his torture-tainted "confessions" were used against him.

“Iranian authorities have scheduled his execution for Sunday May 28, in violation of the absolute prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people who were children [under 18] at the time of the offence for which they have been convicted,” stated Amnesty.

His four previously scheduled executions were postponed following public outcries.

Hossein Shahbazi was arrested in December 2018 and held at a detention facility run by the investigation unit of Iran's police (Agahi) in Shiraz for eleven days without access to a lawyer or family.

During this time, interrogators tortured him and treated him terribly. After an unfair trial in Fars province in which his forced "confessions" were used as evidence against him, a criminal court convicted him of murder and sentenced him to death on 13 January 2020.

His conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court on 16 June 2020 and his request for a judicial review of his case in 2021 was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Amnesty urged Iran to immediately halt the scheduled execution of Hossein Shahbazi, quash both his conviction and death sentence, and grant him a fair retrial in full compliance with international law and the principles of juvenile justice, excluding coerced “confessions”, and without resorting to the death penalty.

Amid mounting criticism from global leaders and rights activists, Iran continues its execution spree, hanging over 110 people in the last month

Due to ecological hazards, the environmental department of Khuzestan has objected to the implementation of the project. An official of the department, Sirous Karimi, told Etemad newspaper Wednesday that environmental evaluation of the project is ongoing and a permit for development of the field is still pending. 

Mohammad Javad Ashrafi, a former director general of Khuzestan’s department of environment, also told Etemad newspaper that he development of the oil field has been put on the agenda due to the policy of giving priority to the development of oil and gas fields shared with Iraq. 

According to Ashrafi, the department rejected the construction of 25 platforms and 35 wells as originally proposed by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) which required the draining of fifteen separate locations covering an area of around 30 hectares of marshes. 

The NIOC then modified its proposal and reduced the locations to six areas of around 3 hectares each which the department has also not accepted, he said. 

Hoor al-Azim, part of the complex of Hawizeh marshes that straddle the Iran-Iraq border, is home to several endangered bird species, unique water plants, and fish. Only one-third of the marshes are on the Iranian side of the border. The marshes play a significant role against dust storms that have plagued southwestern provinces of Iran in the past two decades.

Over half of the Iranian part of Hoor al-Azim, once over 60,000 hectares, has dried up since the late 1980s because of draughts, extraction of water for agriculture, construction of roads and dykes, the many dams built on Karkheh River on the Iranian side of the border and the change of Tigris River’s course on the Iraqi side. 

Sohrab Oil Field is in northern Dezful (Abadan Plain) in the vicinity and parallel to Iran-Iraq border, north of Azadegan oil field. It has been detached from Azadegan oil field by an embayment. 

During President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to the province in late April, the managing director of NIOC, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr, said operations to develop the oil field had begun.

Representing the NIOC, the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) is managing the project and the Tehran-based Dana Energy Company is in charge of developing the field, he was quoted by the oil ministry’s news agency Shana on April 28.

The field is estimated to hold 2 billion barrels of oil in place. According to Shana, the first stage of development operations is expected to help extract 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the field based on estimates, targeting cumulative production of 160 million barrels of crude oil over 20 years.

Discovered in 2012, the NIOC drilled the first exploration well, Sohrab-1, in the same year. A second exploration well followed in the southern part of the field in 2014. 

In August 2021, Ahmadreza Lahijanzadeh, a deputy of the department of environment, said a Japanese company originally chosen to develop the field was prepared to carry out the project by using an advanced technology to avoid draining the marshes but the project was eventually given to a Chinese company that undertook to implement it at 20 percent cheaper but at the cost of drying the marshes. 

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in a notice on Thursday advised British nationals against all travel to Iran.

It warned that the British passport can make Iranian authorities target travelers and they could spend months or years behind bars.

“Our ability to provide consular assistance is extremely limited. In an emergency – such as serious deterioration in the security situation – it is extremely unlikely the British government will be able to evacuate you or provide assistance on the ground in Iran,” reads the notice.

It also cautioned the British nationals, who are already resident in Iran, that they should carefully consider their presence and the risks they are taking by remaining.

There have been several high profile cases of British-Iranian dual nationals being arbitrarily detained in Iran and forced to serve long prison sentences as part of the country's strategy of hostage diplomacy.

“The criminal justice process followed in such cases falls below international standards. If you are detained in Iran your case will be in the hands of the Iranian authorities, who have shown a pattern of hostility towards the UK and its citizens,” added the Foreign Office.

The Iranian authorities have accused people with links to the UK of inciting protests, the Foreign Office warned saying that if the nationals are in or near a protest, they are at serious risk of arrest.

“Anyone who is arrested in connection with protests and holds British nationality may come under added suspicion of espionage or working to undermine the Iranian government.”

Abolqassem Delfi, former senior foreign ministry official and ambassador to France, in an interview with Didban website in Tehran argued that Iran made “big concessions” to Saudi Arabia but gained little in return.

“What we have achieved by the Beijing agreement can be debated and there are differences of opinion in the country. Some believe that Iran has not benefited equally from the deal as much as China and Saudi Arabia have achieved,” Delfi said.

“We have given assurances that the region will remain calm, and we should contribute to regional security. This was one of Trump’s demands…for which he withdrew from the JCPOA,” the former diplomat maintained.

Delfi was referring to an apparent Iranian pledge to change its regional policies on Yemen and Syria.

For Riyadh, relative peace in Yemen would be a relief from constant concerns about cross-border attacks by Iranian-backed Houthis and the cost of a grinding war, allowing it to focus on its grand development projects, Delfi maintained.

Regarding Syria, the Saudis wanted to bring Bashar al-Assad back into the regional Arab orbit, dominated by Riyadh, and they made gains by having the Syrian dictator attend the Arab League summit in Jeddah last week.

In essence, by promising to tone down its regional policies, the Islamic Republic did what former US President Donald Trump wanted from Tehran in 2018 when he withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear agreement, putting forth 12 conditions, Delfi argued.

Just days after Trump announced the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put forth 12 demands as preconditions for normalizing ties with the Islamic Republic.

Besides demanding a tougher nuclear deal and an end to its missile program, Pompeo asked Tehran to cease weapons supplies and support to its regional proxies. He also demanded that Tehran should respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government, end its support for Yemen’s Houthis and withdraw all forces under its command from Syria.

Delfi argued that these were “big concessions” that Iran could have made in different and better circumstances in exchange for an end to most US sanctions.

When the agreement to restore relations with Riyadh was announced on March 10, Iranian officials and government media began to hint at possible economic benefits from the deal. However, so far there has been scant evidence about Saudi Arabia extending a lifeline to Iran, which has been experiencing an economic crisis since the reimposition of US sanction in 2018.

In mid-March, after the Beijing agreement, Delfi had expressed more optimistic views on the impact of restoring ties with Saudi Arabia, arguing that it could be a signal that Tehran was ready to “return to rationality” in its foreign relations.

Delfi also hinted that the replacement of Ali Shamkhani as secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council early this week might impact nuclear talks with the West, although it is too early to pass definitive judgement.