Tehran, Jan 17 (AFP/APP):The trial of an Iranian-Swedish dissident held in Iran for over a year accused of carrying out “bomb attacks” for an Arab separatist group opens Tuesday, the judiciary said.
Habib Chaab disappeared during a visit to Turkey in October 2020 and a month later appeared in a video broadcast by Iranian state television, in which he confessed to launching attacks and working with Saudi intelligence services.
In December that year, Turkish authorities announced the arrest of 11 people suspected of spying and involvement in the alleged kidnapping of Chaab on behalf of Iran.
Iran accuses Chaab of leading the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), which Tehran has designated as a terrorist group.
“The first hearing in the case of Habib Farjollah Chaab, also known as Habib Asyud, the leader of the terrorist group ASMLA, opens tomorrow (Tuesday) before Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online agency said.
Chaab is accused of “planning and carrying out a number of terrorist acts, including bomb attacks in Khuzestan province”, the agency said.
Khuzestan, an oil-rich southwestern province, has a large Arab population that has regularly complained of being marginalised.
Chaab is also accused of “destroying public property with the aim of opposing the Islamic republic”, Mizan said.
Iran does not recognise dual nationality for its nationals, and Sweden had been denied consular access to Chaab.
Turkish police say Chaab was kidnapped in Istanbul before being taken him to Van, on the Iranian border, before he was handed over to authorities in Tehran.
In a video broadcast by state television in Iran after his arrest, Chaab claimed responsibility for an attack in September 2018 on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz that killed at least 29 people.
Chaab in the video also admitted to working for the Saudi intelligence services.
Such videos are common in Iran, and are frequently condemned by rights groups arguing that confessions are often forced through torture.
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