ALBAWABA - Human rights groups announced that Iran executed five "political prisoners" after it claimed they belong to banned Sunni Muslim groups.
According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), Tehran carried out the executions in Vakilabad prison eastern city of Mashhad on Wednesday, after they went through unfair trials, AFP reported.
According to IHR, the families of the five men were unable to get a visit and they heard about the executions over the phone and they are currently waiting to get the bodies of their children outside Iranian jail.
"These prisoners were subjected to torture and sentenced to death following an unfair trial," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam revealed.
ِAFP cited rights groups which confirmed that four of the executed men were members of the Sunni Muslim community, which is a super minority group. Meanwhile, the last one was a Shiite.
"Five more men are dead, with many more being lined up for the gallows behind them, after sham trials that lacked any semblance of legality or fairness," Behnam Daraeizadeh, senior researcher and legal expert at the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) announced.
The men were arrested back in 2015 and convicted of "baghi" -- the capital charge of "rebellion" being a membership in outlawed Sunni Muslim groups, in accordance with Iranian law.
Nonetheless, three others charged in the same case were executed by Iran in 2020, AFP added.
