Iran executes four ‘Israeli saboteurs’ after top IRGC general is killed by IDF strike

Iran and its proxy groups in the Middle East pose a serious threat to the West

IRAN has executed four “saboteurs” linked to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the Mizan news agency affiliated to the judiciary said.

The killings could be seen as a possible revenge move after Senior Iranian general Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed on Christmas Day in Syria.

"Four members of a sabotage team associated with the Zionist regime ... were executed this morning following legal procedures," the news agency said, accusing them of "extensive" actions, guided by Mossad officers, targeting Iran's security.

The executions in West Azerbaijan province on Friday came after Iran executed a fifth accused Mossad agent in the southeastern region of Sistan-Baluchestan in mid-December.

The four executed on Friday were identified as Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazo, and Nasim Namazi by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

They were the main prisoners in a case involving ten defendants, it noted, but it was unclear if the others would also face the death penalty, Reuters reports.

Iran - known for its brutal execution tactics - has previously announced the arrests and executions of alleged agents working for foreign countries, including Israel.

Tehran frequently claims to foil Mossad operations in the country, but the veracity of such claims is unclear, The Times of Israel reports.

It comes after a senior Iranian general was allegedly killed by an Israeli airstrike in Syria.

Tehran has since vowed to seek revenge, swearing that Israel "will certainly pay for this crime".

General Razi Mousavi, a high-ranking official in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, was killed on Christmas Day according to state media reports.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on X/Twitter that “Tel Aviv faces a tough countdown", following his death.

An Iranian official told state TV that he was working in the embassy in Damascus, Syria's capital and was struck by an Israeli missile while heading home from work.

Thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets on Thursday after the top Iranian general was killed.

Mourners chanted: "No compromise! No surrender! Battle with America!

Slogans like "Death to America, Death to Israel" were chanted as many waved yellow flags with the message "I am your [Israel's] opponent".

A US Republican official has since called for a massive attack on Iran, urging Biden administration to blow the country "off the map".

Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, Senator Lindsey Graham told Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin not to show "weakness" after Iran-backed militias attacked US troops in the region.

The killing of Iran's top military general comes amid the ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza broadening into a major Middle-Eastern conflict.

Iran's proxy war groups including the Houthi rebels in Lebanon as well as those in Syria and Iraq have joined Hamas in attacking Israel.

In recent weeks daily strikes from land and air have escalated between Hezbollah and Israel along its border with Lebanon.

Houthi rebels have also attacked countless ships linked to Israel or its allies the UK and US to disrupt trade, even hijacking one entirely with an armed ambush onboard.

Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and US Navy vessels in the Red Sea can "threaten the global economy, endangering the vital Suez Canal trade route," wrote John Bolton for The Telegraph.

US president Joe Biden announced plans to directly intervene in the rebels' ocean attacks after it vowed to continue striking cargo ships in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Just days ago the leader of the Houthi rebels swore to target American warships if Biden ordered any strikes against them.

Iran also claimed that Hamas's October 7 attacks were in revenge for a 2020 assassination of a top Iranian general.

IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif branded the US strike that killed Qasem Soleimani a "terrorist act" - but Hamas denies it was their motivator for their massacres in Israel.

The military commander was blown up by a US drone in a strike ordered by former President Donald Trump.

It provoked a furious response from Iran who called on the UN's Security Council to take formal action against both the US and Israel - which it also accused of assisting in the assassination hit.

But Commander Sharif has now backtracked and claimed his comments about the October 7 attacks being in "revenge" for the assassination of Soleimani were "misunderstood".

Hamas has also denied the claim and reiterated the massacres were related to "the dangers threatening the Al-Aqsa Mosque", referring to the key Islamic site on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Source: the-sun.com, Juliana Cruz Lima, December 29, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

Saudi Arabia executes man convicted on terrorism-related charges

A man convicted on terrorism-related charges has been executed in Saudi Arabia following a final court ruling, according to an official statement from the Interior Ministry and reporting patterns consistent with international news agencies. The Interior Ministry said the individual, identified as Saoud bin Muhammad bin Ali al-Faraj, was convicted of multiple offenses including alleged affiliation with a foreign-linked terrorist organization, targeting security personnel, supporting and financing terrorist activities, harboring suspects, manufacturing explosives, and illegal possession of weapons.The case was initially investigated by security authorities before being referred to the judiciary.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

China executes Frenchman convicted in 2010 for drug trafficking

Chan Thao Phoumy, a 62-year-old Frenchman born in Laos, was executed, “despite the efforts of the French authorities, including efforts to obtain a pardon on humanitarian grounds for our compatriot”, said a foreign ministry statement. Phoumy, who was born in Laos, had been sentenced to death in 2010 following a conviction for drug trafficking. Despite sustained diplomatic pressure and formal requests for clemency on humanitarian grounds, Chinese authorities proceeded with the capital sentence. A massive drug manufacturing and distribution operation Chan Thao Phoumy was convicted for his involvement in a massive drug manufacturing and distribution operation that remains one of the largest drug-related cases in Chinese history. Phoumy and his accomplices were convicted of manufacturing approximately 8 tons of crystal methamphetamine between 1999 and 2003.

Israel passes death penalty law for terrorists convicted of deadly attacks

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure that has been harshly condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane. The passage of the bill marked the culmination of a years-long drive by the far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offenses against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person. The law makes the death penalty — by hanging — the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges — language that legal experts say effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.

Faith Leaders, Advocates Plan Protests Against Firms Tied to Idaho Execution Chamber Project

BOISE, Idaho — Faith leaders, community advocates and relatives of a person executed by firing squad are joining national advocacy groups to protest firms involved in constructing Idaho’s execution chamber, as states increasingly turn to alternative methods amid lethal injection drug shortages. Due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies, especially in the past decade, many states have had to find alternative methods because of extensive shortages of lethal injection drugs. Further, this has led the state of Idaho to pass legislation authorizing execution by firing squad, which is one of the most aggressive among alternative methods.

Sonia Sotomayor Warns That Texas May Execute an Innocent Man

Law is, as legal scholars and commentators have long recognized , both a refuge for those seeking to escape abuses of power and a trap in which their claims of justice get lost in a maze of statutory intricacies. Nowhere has this been more clearly on display than in the world of capital punishment. Over the span of half a century, the Supreme Court has gone from championing the rights of capital defendants and death row inmates to deflecting and denying their pursuit of justice. Where once the court carefully scrutinized procedures used in death cases, insisting that they had to conform to the dictates of so-called super due process , today it has made the due process accorded in those cases not super at all .

Pentobarbital Sodium Is Used to End Suffering — and Also to Execute People. The Debate Is Getting Louder.

In a prison in Arizona, a tiny vial is kept in a refrigerator. Or there was—the precise state of what’s inside is still up for debate. The contents may have expired, according to a retired judge looking into the state’s execution procedures. They would not expire, according to prison officials. This could not be independently verified by anyone outside the prison. Pentobarbital sodium is the drug in question, and the fact that its storage conditions in a correctional facility are now the focus of legal investigation indicates how far this specific compound has deviated from its intended use.

Florida Supreme Court halts execution of police officer convicted of raping, murdering girl

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — The execution of a former Florida police officer convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl was temporarily halted Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court. The court issued a stay in execution for 68-year-old James Aren Duckett, who was scheduled to receive a three-drug injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Duckett was sentenced to death in 1988 after being convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery.

Iranian Gay Activist: "They Forced Me to Watch Executions So I Would Know How Mine Would Be"

Iranian LGBT activist now living as a refugee in Spain. He was sentenced to death by the ayatollah regime for being homosexual and for his support campaign for the community. "The enemy was already at home," he says about the current war In 11 countries around the world, homosexuality is punishable by death - it is criminalized in almost 70 countries. One of them is the Islamic Republic of Iran, from where Ramtin Zigorat (Tabriz, 1988) managed to escape after avoiding a death sentence and enduring the worst tortures. He has been living as a refugee in Spain for six and a half years. Question . His life, his testimony, can help us better understand what the Iranian Islamist regime is. I believe that until adolescence, you did not fully understand that you were homosexual.

Arizona | Death Row Inmate Challenges Execution Warrant, Citing 2025 Cyberattack and Protocol Failures

Leroy Dean McGill was sentenced to death for a 2002 gasoline attack in North Phoenix against a couple, Charles Perez and Nova Banta. PHOENIX — Attorneys for Arizona death row inmate Leroy Dean McGill have formally challenged the state’s attempt to secure an execution warrant, citing a catastrophic 2025 cyberattack and a long history of troubled lethal injection protocols. The challenge comes as Arizona seeks to resume capital punishment following a year-long hiatus. If the Arizona Supreme Court grants the state’s request, McGill would become the first person executed in the state since 2024.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog