Two Sentenced to Death for Blasts in Iran

Khaleej Times Online:

Iran’s judiciary said on Monday two people had been sentenced to death for their role in twin bombings in the southwesten city of Ahvaz last month which killed eight people. Sentences for five other people arrested in connection with the blasts have not yet been finalised, Prosecutor General Qorban Ali Dori Najafabadi told the official IRNA news agency. READ MORE

He said the two who were sentenced to death were the main culprits for the bombings, the bloodiest in a series of blasts and riots that have plagued Khuzestan province, the heartland of Iran’s oil industry, since April 2005.

Iran has accused Britain of being behind the bombings and says some of those arrested have confessed to receiving assistance from British forces in southern Iraq. London denies any role in the blasts.

A little-known group campaigning for independence for Iran’s small Arab minority claimed responsibility for the January bombings on a bank and government offices in Ahvaz.

Only about 3 percent of Iran’s 69 million people are Arabs but they form a sizeable proportion of those living in the southwestern Khuzestan province.