Prisoner hanged in volatile Iran province

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, May 31 – Iranian authorities hanged a man in a prison in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan which has been the scene of numerous attacks by armed insurgents against government and security officials. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, May 31 – Iranian authorities hanged a man in a prison in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan which has been the scene of numerous attacks by armed insurgents against government and security officials.

Abdol-Hamid Narouee was hanged in Zahedan Prison charged with possession of an illegal weapon and armed robbery, the official news agency reported on Tuesday.

Iran has witnessed escalating unrest in recent months in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the theocratic regime.

A Baluchi group opposed to the government of Iran calling itself Jondollah has claimed responsibility for a string of armed attacks on government officials including an attack in March on a government convoy, which left twenty-two government and provincial officials dead and at least seven, including the governor of the city of Zahedan, critically wounded.

In April, Iran’s state-run media reported that security forces had killed the group’s leader Abdolmalek Reigi along with 11 of its members on the border with Afghanistan.

The claim proved to be false after Reigi subsequently appeared on an Arabic-language satellite channel denying such rumours.

Separately, the state-run news agency ISNA reported on Tuesday that the State Supreme Court had upheld an execution sentence for a young man accused of killing a friend in November 2003.