Esfandiar Saffari ‎

In Iran’s Baluchistan, Molavi Abdolghoddus Mollazehi and Molavi Mohammad Yousef ‎Sohrabi were executed for conspiring to provide support to the armed Sunni separatist ‎group, Jendollah. ‎

Threatening More Executions

Molavi Abdolghoddus Mollazehi and Molavi Mohammad Youef Sohrabi, who were ‎arrested on 22 Azar, 1386 [December 13, 2006] in a raid orchestrated by the Islamic ‎Republic’s security officers at the Jah Jamal religious seminary in southwestern Iran, ‎were executed after standing a private trial and a day after their confessions were ‎broadcasted on a local television network. The two were executed on the morning of 21 ‎Farvardin [April 9], by the order of Ebrahim Nekounam, head of Baluchistan province’s ‎judiciary. ‎

An hour following the execution of the two Sunni clerics, Nekounam released a ‎statement, broadcasted on the local television network under the title, “In the Name of ‎Vengeful God.” In the statement, Nekounam portrayed the two executed clerics as “fake-‎Molavi’s who had turned the religious seminary, mosque, and schools into an evil nest ‎for terrorists,” and accused them of “conspiring and collecting various kinds of weaponry ‎and supplies to orchestrate terrorist attacks in the province” and “creating divisions ‎between the Shiite and the Sunni.” ‎

The head of Balushistan’s judiciary also warned, “Everyone must know that the great ‎Iranian nation, comprised of diverse religions and ethnicities, and judicial, security and ‎police officers, will not allow anyone, in any garb, group, religion, and from any ‎publication or outlet, to stir the fire of division and disagreement.” ‎

The two executed clerics were arrested on December 13, 2006, during a raid on the Jah ‎Jamal religious seminary near the city of Iranshahr. During the raid, which turned ‎violent, 4 individuals, later identified by the head of the Fath brigade as members of ‎jendollah, were killed and 13 others, including the two above-mentioned clerics, were ‎arrested. Five officers from the Islamic Republic’s security forces were also killed in the ‎skirmishes. ‎

The trials of the two Molavi’s, along with their 11 detained colleagues, were held last ‎winter behind closed doors, and all were accused of “assisting Jendollah” and “holding ‎weaponry and supplies.” ‎

Jendollah, which is an armed group opposing the Islamic Republic, has taken ‎responsibility for several attacks in the past few years, including a bomb explosion on a ‎bus carrying Revolutionary Guards soldiers in Zahedan, which claimed the lives of 11 ‎Guards members. ‎

Following the news of the clerics’ execution, Jendollah has warned all non-natives to ‎leave the province, as the group intends to target all non-Baluchis in the province. ‎