Iran hanged some members of a Sunni rebel group today in prison and not in public as initially planned, the semi-official Fars News Agency said.
Fars had reported yesterday that 14 members of Jundollah (God's soldiers) would be executed in a park in the city of Zahedan, including the brother of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi.
But Ebrahim Hamidi, who heads the judiciary in the volatile southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, said today the executions took place in a jail instead and that Rigi's brother would be put to death later in the week.
Predominantly Shia Muslim Iran says Jundollah is part of the Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda network and backed by the United States.
Jundollah says it fights for the rights of Iran's minority Sunnis. Most people in Sistan-Baluchestan are Sunni Muslims and ethnic Baluchis. Zahedan is the provincial capital.
Yesterday, Fars said the Jundollah members sentenced to hang were convicted of mohareb, or one who is waging war against God, and of killing innocent people.
It did not mention a mosque bombing in Zahedan which killed 25 people in May. Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television had reported that Jundollah claimed the bombing.
On May 30th, three people convicted of involvement in the mosque bombing were hanged in public. A day later clashes broke out between supporters and opponents of a Sunni cleric in Zahedan and six people died in an arson attack, media reported.
The European Union earlier this month denounced Iran for a spate of executions, including the hanging of 20 drug traffickers on July 4th in a jail in a city west of Tehran.
Amnesty International has listed Iran as the world's second most prolific executioner in 2008 after China, and says Iran executed at least 346 people last year.
Reuters