Iran on Saturday May 6 executed the Iranian-Swedish dissident Habib Chaab, sentenced to death for “terrorism”, announced the Iranian justice. “The death sentence of Habib Chaab (…) at the head of the terrorist group Harakat al-Nidal, was carried out today, Saturday morning”, specified on its website the agency of the judicial authority Mizan Online.
Head of the Arab Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA, or Harakat al-Nidal), considered a terrorist organization by the Iranian authorities, Habib Chaab, was in his fifties. He disappeared in October 2020 after traveling to Istanbul only to reappear a month later behind bars in Iran.
In November 2020, Iranian television broadcast a video in which he accused himself in particular of a deadly attack committed in September 2018 during a military parade in Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan province. In this video, he also claimed to work for the Saudi intelligence services.
His death sentence, announced on December 6, was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court on March 12. He had been convicted of “corruption on Earth”, one of the most serious charges in Iran, as well as “the management and direction of a rebel group and the design and execution of numerous terrorist operations”.
Sweden reacted immediately, calling the death penalty “an inhuman and irreversible punishment”. Stockholm had taken steps to offer him consular assistance, without results, because Iran does not recognize dual nationality.
