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TEHRAN Iran on Saturday hanged three men in public accused of involvement in the bombing of a Shia mosque that killed 25 people, an official said, branding them terrorists and enemies of God.
The early morning executions were carried out near the mosque in southeastern Iran which was devastated by Thursdays bombing, said Hojatoeslam Ebrahim Hamidi, justice chief of Sistan-Baluchestan province.
At least 125 people were also wounded in the powerful blast caused by a suicide bomber at the Amir al-Momenin mosque in the Sistan-Baluchestan provincial capital Zahedan during evening prayers.
The terrorists Haji Noti Zehi, Gholam Rasoul Shahi Zehi and Zabihollah Naroui were hanged at 600 am (0130 GMT) near the Amir al-Momenin mosque in public, Hamidi told the official IRNA news agency.
They confessed to illegally bringing explosives into Iran and giving them to the main person behind the bombing, he added.
They were convicted of being mohareb (enemies of God) and corrupt on the earth and acting against national security, Hamidi said.
He said the trio had been arrested before Thursdays bombing but had confessed that they had provided the explosives for the mosque bombing.
They were tried and they had court-appointed legal representation, he said.
The three men, he added, had also been charged with direct involvement in the bombing of a Revolutionary Guards bus in 2007 in which 13 people were killed, the bombing of Al-Ghadir mosque in Zahedan in February this year which caused no casualties and some other bombings.
Sistan-Baluchestan has for several years been the scene of a deadly insurgency by Sunni rebels of the Jundallah (Soldiers of God) group, headed by Abdolmalek Rigi, which is strongly opposed to the government of predominantly Shia Iran. -AFP
