Iran executes Sufi opposition member accused of running over police officers

Judicial sources in Iran said they upheld the death sentence of a Sufi opposition member Mohammad Reza Salas on Monday morning, after being accused of running over three Iranian police officers during Sufi protests earlier this year.

On Sunday, 97 members of European Parliament have requested Iranian authorities to suspend the decision of Salas, a member of the Gonabadi dervishes, who follow the mystical Sufi strain of Islam.

Salas has confessed before the court that he unintentionally ran over a number of police officers during clashes with protesters from the religious order last February.

However, after the end of court sessions, an audio recording being circulated stated that Salas was not the driver of the bus that ran over a number of police officers, but the confession extracted from him came under torture.

The case has gained local and international attention, with the banned Iranian rights organization “Harana” saying that Salas’s “confession of killing three police officers was extracted following hours of torture in Evin Prison, north of Iran.”

A Sufi activist, Waheed Bahshti, said Iranian judicial authorities have carried out Salas’s execution early Monday morning after ilsoating him from other prisoners about a a week ago.

On Sunday, authorities allowed his family to see him for the last time, the sources added. His daughter has appealed to authorities to suspend the death penalty and consider the information in the audio recording saying he did not commit the crime.