Iran executes Baluch militant for killing two Revolutionary guards five years ago

Iran on January 30 executed an ethnic Baluch militant convicted of killing the Revolutionary Guards members a day after the United Nations (UN) urged the Iranian authorities to spare his life. Iran’s judiciary’s official website reported on Saturday that Javid Dehghan, who it described as the leader of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice was hanged for shooting dead two Guards five years ago in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. 

The execution took place after, on January 29, the UN human rights office had called for a halt to Dehghan’s imminent execution and condemned “a series of executions – at least 28 – since mid-December, including of people from minority groups”. Several world bodies along with human rights groups have often called out the Islamic Republic for its rights record and a growing number of executions. Just last month, Iran executed Ruhollah Zam, a once-exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017. As per the Iranian public broadcaster, Zam was hanged in the wee hours of December 12.

The journalist who was in exile in France was sentenced to death in June this year. Zam’s website and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had published the timings of the protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran’s Shiite theocracy. 

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US condemns Zam’s execution

Senior foreign policy officials within US President Joe Biden’s incoming administration had condemned the execution of exiled Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam by Tehran. In a Twitter statement, Biden's at the time, nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken and nominee for National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan denounced the "horrifying" act and called out the Shi’ite regime. Their remarks come as Biden aims at re-establishing diplomatic relations with Iran, which was severed by Donald Trump.

Terming it a "human rights violation", Sullivan wrote that the Iranian journalist was sentenced for "exercising his universal rights". Further in his tweet, he called out the execution and asserted that they will "stand up to Iran’s abuses". Blinken retweeted Sullivan's post.

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Image Credits: The Associated Press