IRAN. FOUR IRANIAN ARABS EXECUTED

January 24, 2007: Iran publicly hanged four men convicted of taking part in deadly bombings in the south-western city of Ahwaz in 2005.
Those executed were  Khalaf Dohrab Khanafereh, Alireza Asakereh, Mohammad Chaabpour and Abdulamir Farjollah Chaab. The men were members of Iran's Arab minority and were convicted of involvement in bomb attacks in October 2005 which killed at least six people and wounded more than a hundred others.
According to reports, the four men were denied access to their lawyers in the two weeks prior to their execution and the trial sessions were held without other defendants or lawyers present.
In October 2006 five of the lawyers appeared before the Revolutionary Court for allegedly endangering national security by publishing their complaints of the legal proceedings on Ahwazi websites abroad. On 10 January 2007, three leading UN human rights experts jointly called on Iran to “stop the imminent execution of seven men belonging to the Ahwazi Arab minority and grant them a fair and public hearing,’ and criticised the trials as “making a mockery of due process requirements.” (Sources: Amnesty International, 24/01/2007)