TEHRAN -- Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Sunday those who had a hand in Iran riots cannot have a representative in the newly-formed fact-fighting committee tasked with investigating different aspects of the recent developments.
Asked by reporters on the framework of the Iranian committee, Vahidi said the panel exclusively deals with the riots, their root causes and main masterminds, and that it has no political nature.
“Therefore, the institutions which have a role to play will be involved,” said the minister, adding independent law experts who have no affiliation with the government will also be present.
The minister said the recent developments in the country were mainly riots rather than protests, adding logical protests were stifled by rioters.
“Rioters did not allow those who had rational criticisms to make their voice heard; therefore, rioters cannot naturally have any representative,” he said.
According to official figures, 200 people lost their lives in the recent wave of protests and riots that gripped several cities in the country.
The unrest broke out in mid-September over the death of a young Iranian woman in police custody, but the protests were quickly hijacked by rioters and thugs, who engaged in acts of violence.
In a statement in late October, Iran’s main intelligence bodies elaborated on the role of foreign parties, particularly the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the occupying regime of Israel and the UK, in fueling the violence in Iran.
Four Thugs Executed
Iran on Sunday put to death four people who worked with the Zionist regime’s intelligence service, the judiciary said.
“This morning, the sentences of four main members of the gang of mobsters related to the Zionist intelligence service were executed,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.
The sentences were carried out four days after the Islamic Republic’s supreme court upheld the penalty of capital punishment for “their intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and kidnapping”, the Mizan Online said.
Mizan identified the men as Hussein Ordoukhanzadeh, Shahin Imani Mahmoudabad, Milad Ashrafi Atbatan and Manouchehr Shahbandi Bojandi.
Three other thugs were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison for crimes against the country’s security, complicity in kidnapping and possession of weapons, the judiciary’s website said after the Wednesday ruling.
On May 22, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said it had arrested members of “a network acting under the direction of the Israeli intelligence service”.
“These people committed theft, destruction of personal and public property, kidnapping and extortion of false confessions,” an IRGC statement said at the time.
In late July Iran reported additional arrests, of several people linked to Israel’s Mossad. These included members of a terrorist group that was planning to target “sensitive sites”.