Iran on Sunday executed Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah group, which has taken responsibility for several violent attacks inside Iran.
“After the decision of the Tehran revolutionary tribunal, Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged on Sunday morning in Evin prison,” said a court statement.
“The head of the armed counter-revolutionary group in the east of the country ... was responsible for armed robbery, assassination attempts, armed attacks on the Army and police and on ordinary people, and murder,” it added.
Rigi was charged with 79 counts of various crimes including armed robbery, bombing operations in public places, armed attacks on the Army, police personnel, and ordinary civilians, assassinations, disrupting regional stability, kidnapping and murder, State-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
The court statement said Jundallah was “responsible for the killing of 154 members of security forces and other innocent people and wounding of 320 people since 2003”.
It added that the Jundallah was linked to members of foreign intelligence services, from the U.S. and Israel under the cover of NATO. The group was also connected to the Mujahedeen-e- Khalq Organisation (MKO), which Iran says is responsible for several deadly bombings in the country.
A leading Iranian lawmaker said Tehran was now planning to file a lawsuit against Britain and the U.S. for supporting Rigi. “Based on Rigi's confessions, America and Britain were backing terrorist acts committed by him in Iran,” said lawmaker Parviz Sorouri, the ILNA news agency reported.
In October, Jundallah claimed responsibility for a major strike in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province which killed 42 people, including Brigadier-General Nourali Shoushtari, a Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
Rigi was arrested by Iran's security forces on February 23 after his flight from Dubai to Bishkek was forced to land at a location in eastern Iran. The semi-official Fars news agency said after his arrest, Rigi said he was travelling to Bishkek to meet a high-ranking American official at a nearby military base.
