Judicial Official: Arrest of 32 ISIS Members in Iran is an Old Case

One day after a judicial official of the Islamic Republic announced the arrest of 32 men and women 'members of ISIS' in Iran, another judicial official stated that this is an 'old case' and the initial verdict has already been issued. According to the Young Journalists Club website, Gholamhossein Esmaili, head of the Tehran judiciary, said on Sunday, July 8, that the arrest of these 32 individuals is a relatively old case and has gone to the appeals court after the initial ruling. This judicial official did not provide details but mentioned that these individuals were 'prepared to carry out terrorist operations within the country.' A day earlier, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, also reported the arrest of 16 women and 16 men who are ISIS members. According to Mizan, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi stated that although the ISIS case 'had previously been under the supervision of the country's security agencies,' after last year's attacks on the parliament and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, 'all individuals related to the operations... were arrested across the country.' The statements of these two judicial officials come as the Tehran prosecutor's office announced the execution of 8 individuals who were involved in last year's attack on the parliament building and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini. According to an indictment announced last year, these 8 individuals 'collaborated with the main perpetrators' in the attacks of June 2017. In recent years, especially after last year's attacks in Tehran, Iranian security officials have repeatedly reported the arrest of several individuals suspected of links to ISIS in various regions of Iran, but they have not provided details about these arrests or the identities of those detained. The group known as 'Islamic State,' ISIS, has threatened Iran with further operations following last year's attacks and the execution of the aforementioned 8 individuals, through the dissemination of visual messages. The almost simultaneous armed attacks that occurred on June 17 of last year left 17 dead, and according to Iranian officials, five of the attackers were also killed in suicide bombings or in clashes with security forces. According to Iranian media reports, the case of these attacks has 26 defendants, and the trial of the remaining 18 defendants will be held in the coming months.