TEHRAN -- The ringleader of a separatist group responsible for several terrorist operations in Iran, including the 2018 deadly terrorist attack in southwestern city of Ahvaz, has been executed, Mizan news agency reported on Saturday.
The death sentence against Habib Farajollah Chaab, also known as Habib Asyud, the ringleader of the Harkat al-Nazal terror outfit, was carried out on Saturday morning, said the agency which is affiliated to the Iranian judiciary.
Back on March 12, Iran’s judiciary confirmed the death sentence “on charges of corruption on earth through the formation, management, and leadership of a rebel group called Harkat al-Nazal and the design and execution of numerous terrorist operations in Khuzestan province.”
He pleaded guilty and confessed last year to masterminding the 2018 atrocity as well as many other acts of terror targeting the Iranian nation.
Chaab had admitted to being naturalized by Sweden and backed by the Scandinavian country’s government, saying he had been provided with a device that would alert Swedish security officials to rescue him whenever he was in danger.
The Swedish-backed terrorist was arrested in November 2020 on the back of a set of “specialized and combined measures” by Iranian intelligence forces.
The Harkat al-Nazal terror outfit has been pushing to separate the southwestern province of Khuzestan — home to the country’s Arab population — from the rest of Iran by engaging in an armed

conflict against the Iranian government.
In September 2018, it claimed responsibility for an attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, Khuzestan’s provincial capital, which killed 25 people, including members of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and civilian bystanders, and injured more than 270 others.