Iran executes two members of opposition group for attacking infrastructure
Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamloo, identified as "operational elements" of the MEK, were sentenced to death in September 2024 - a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court, which denied their request for a retrial, Mizan said.
"The terrorists, in coordination with MEK leaders, had ...
built launchers and hand-held mortars in line with the group's goals, fired projectiles heedlessly at citizens, homes, service and administrative facilities, educational and charity centres," the report said.
The defendants were indicted with "moharebeh", - an Islamic term meaning waging war against God - destroying public property and "membership in a terrorist organisation with the aim of disrupting national security."
Amnesty International said that Ehsani-Eslamloo and Hassani were arrested in 2022 and maintained their innocence during a trial which the rights group called "grossly unfair and marred by allegations of torture and forced confessions.'
"According to informed sources, agents interrogated them without lawyers present and subjected them to torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement, to extract self-incriminating statements," it said in January.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the number of people executed in Iran rose to at least 901 in 2024, the highest number since 2015.
The MEK, known in English as People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, was a powerful leftist-Islamist group that staged bombing campaigns against the shah's government and U.S. targets in the 1970s but ultimately fell out with the other factions of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Since then, the MEK has opposed the Islamic Republic and its leadership in exile has been Paris-based. The group was listed as a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and the European Union until 2012.
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The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The time for Australia to recognise the state of Palestine is right now
No one should underestimate the power of one image to move the minds of nations. Just like the image of nine-year-old South Vietnamese girl Pham Thi Kim Phúc, running naked on a road, screaming as her back burned from napalm dropped during an attack by the South Vietnamese air force. That moment was captured by photographer Nick Ut. The New York Times debated running the photo due to its nudity. They ran it on their front page the next day in edited form. It became powerfully attached to the Vietnam war and rippled through global opinion. The memory of this image bolted to my mind's forefront when I saw last week the images of children starving in Gaza plastered across almost every media outlet in the world, including conservative UK outlet the Daily Express, which featured a staggering front page with a gaunt Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq – a one-year-old so starved, he now weighs the same as a three-month-old baby. His spine sticks out like a knotted thread – an image that whipped a headline out of the Daily Express: 'For pity's sake, stop this', declaring that the suffering 'shames us all'. Muhammad is not the victim of a drought, or an event beyond the control of people and governments. It's no accident, this boy – like so many children in Gaza – has barely any energy to lift eyelids. This is a result of deliberate decisions by the Netanyahu government to restrict humanitarian aid into Gaza. The significance of the Daily Express featuring this image should not be overlooked. A publication with a conservative bent has taken a strong stand because the humanitarian cause should not be political. These images have torn through social media. The same week, one of the biggest western nations – and the first member of the G7 – France, announced it would officially recognise the state of Palestine at September's UN general assembly. About 147 nations already recognise the state of Palestine – but none as large as France. That's significant. So many nations have lost patience and are unable to stay silent or inert, as the Netanyahu government continually demonstrates its refusal to conduct its pursuit of Hamas in a way that respects the life of innocent civilians, something demanded by international humanitarian law. Our prime minister's strong statement this week and his recognition over the weekend that 'Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March', paves the way for further action. This is the moment for our nation to take a similar stand. I'm proud that our party has twice agreed at its highest decision-making forum – the National Conference of the Australian Labor party – to recognise the state of Palestine. The time to do so is absolutely right now. It would be so close to the declaration of the French, sending a powerful signal, build momentum and likely influence other nations, even though at this moment the UK and German governments appear unmoved. It's not that the move of its own will point-blank end the suffering experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. There is so much crucial work to be done. But it will cement and back in the stand taken by 28 nations last week – rightly including Australia – to object to any re-partitioning of Gaza into concentration zones, tantamount to ethnic cleaning. While our party position has been straightforward, our government has understandably believed recognition should be part of a peace process. That has been a clear-cut, logical stand for the times. But times change. Just when we think we can't be shocked further, every month of this 20-month campaign has seemingly proved us wrong and this demands a rethink in our response. It's also blazingly clear that the Netanyahu government has absolutely no intention of recognising a Palestinian state. Not now, not ever. That's clearly not a party you can negotiate a peace process with, especially if they're not even prepared to warm a seat at the negotiating table (frankly that seat will have to be dragged into the room collectively by the actions of the international community). French president Emmanuel Macron felt no need to observe conditionality prior to making his announcement. He did set out nearly half a dozen important markers as part of the recognition process, which Australia would not conceivably object to. These included: an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all Israeli hostages, a massive surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the demilitarisation of Hamas. The fact that only over the weekend the Netanyahu government is allowing 'minimal' aid into the territory demonstrates that the actions of the French government mattered, they made a difference. The time is right for Australia to recognise Palestine. Last week, I took part in a vigil outside Parliament House. Parliamentarians of different stripes took shifts in reading out the names of the 17,000 teenagers and children killed in Gaza since 7 October. 17,000 names listed in a book whose weight dragged on the heart. The pages formatted into a grid: name, age, gender. I can't describe to you how confronting it was, as the eye moved left to right, reading a name where the age 0 was listed beside it. I kept thinking to myself: that baby deserved to be raised and nurtured within the love of a family, to laugh and play with other kids, to grow to fulfil their own ambitions, write their own history. Yet their history is starkly recorded as a name subsumed within a thicket of lines and pages captured in a book of casualties. If a conservative outlet such as the Daily Express can summon heart to demand better for children like Muhammad, why can't Australian conservatives do the same, the ones who champion pro-family values but are silent in the face of families being wiped out. We can and should feel for both Israeli and Palestinian families. We're all human after all, right? Ed Husic is the federal Labor MP for Chifley in western Sydney
BBC News
an hour ago
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Newshour Israel allows aid to enter Gaza by road and in airdrops
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Daily Mail
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STEPHEN GLOVER: Starmer is right to reject demands to recognise a Palestinian state. But how long can this master of the U-turn hold firm?
When the Prime Minister meets Donald Trump in Scotland today they will have many more pressing matters to discuss than the American President's golf swing. Gaza faces the prospect of mass starvation. The decision of Israel 's government on Saturday night to let in limited humanitarian aid will provide some relief but the crisis certainly hasn't passed.
