TEHRAN: Iran hanged on Sunday five insurgents, including a Kurdish woman, convicted of bombing government offices and a gas pipeline to Turkey and described as "enemies of God", state media reported.
The five, including the woman Shirin Alamhouli, were executed in Tehran’s Evin prison, the official IRNA news agency said, quoting a statement from the capital’s prosecution office.
The four others who were hanged were Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili and Mehdi Eslamian.
Kamangar, Heidarian and Vakili, along with Alamhouli were members of the Kurdish rebel group, PJAK (The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), ISNA news agency said quoting the same statement from the prosecution’s office.
Eslamian reportedly belonged to the anti-regime monarchist group, Kingdom Assembly of Iran, which aims to restore the constitutional monarchy that was abolished by the 1979 Islamic revolution.
ISNA said the five were convicted of being "moharebs" or "enemies of God" — a crime punishable by death under Iran’s sharia-based Islamic law.
They were also "convicted of carrying out terrorist acts, including bombings of government centers and public properties in several Iranian cities," the prosecutor’s office said, according to IRNA.
The prosecution said that the arrests of Vakili, Heidarian and Kamangar was a clear evidence that PJAK had set up "a terrorist and a bombing group by working with people from Kurdish areas" of Iran.
"Heidarian accepted he had links with PJAK and that he was associated with Kamangar for a planned bombing in Tehran," ISNA reported, detailing what it said were his confessions upon his arrest.
"The three bombed two governors’ offices, a department of the commerce ministry in Kermanshah and also blew up a gas pipeline to Turkey," it said.
Police seized explosives, bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-regime leaflets from the three men.
ISNA said Alamhouli was arrested for bombing a car in a Tehran parking lot belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guards.
"In her confession, she said she was on a mission for PJAK and police found cables, remote control device and batteries in her bag," ISNA said.
The agency reported that Eslamian was involved in the deadly bombing of a a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz in April 2008 and charged with acting against national security.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has identified Kamangar as a teacher while the European Union had condemned the death sentences against him, Vakili and Heidarian.
PJAK is closely allied with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which operates in Turkey and is listed as a "terrorist" group by Ankara and much of the international community.
The latest hangings bring to at least 61 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on news reports. Last year, at least 270 people were hanged.
Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain public security and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.
