Iran sentences to death Tajik over Shiite shrine attack

TEHRAN (AFP): An Iranian court has sentenced to death a Tajik man convicted over carrying out a deadly gun attack on a Shiite Muslim shrine in August, the judiciary said Thursday.

The attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz, capital of Fars province in Iran’s south, came less than a year after a mass shooting at the same site that was later claimed by the Daesh group.

Nine suspects — all of them foreigners — were arrested after the August 13 attack, which killed two people and wounded seven others.

The convicted attacker, identified as Rahmatollah Nowruzof from Tajikistan and described as an Daesh member, was handed two death sentences, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.

He was convicted on charges of “moharebeh,” or waging war against God, as well as “sedition and collusion against the security of the country,” the website said.

Two other men were sentenced to five years in prison and deportation from the country over “participating in gatherings and collusion with the intention of disrupting the country’s security,” it added.

Footage and pictures published following the attack showed windows shattered by bullets, and blood staining the ground in a courtyard of the arched and colonnaded complex.

The European Union and several countries including Iraq, Russia and France condemned the shooting and expressed their condolences.

In October 2022, a mass shooting at the shrine left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. Daesh later claimed the attack.

Iran hanged two men in public on July 8 over the killings after their conviction for “corruption on earth, armed rebellion and acting against national security,” Mizan said at the time.

London-based rights group Amnesty International says Iran executes more people than any other country except China and hanged at least 582 people last year, the highest number since 2015.

The Shah Cheragh mausoleum is home to the tomb of Ahmad, brother of Imam Reza — the eighth Shiite imam — and is considered the holiest site in southern Iran.