The Assailant of a Member of the Assembly of Experts in Babol Executed

The head of the Mazandaran judiciary announced the execution of the assailant of Abbasali Soleimani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, in Babol prison. Soleimani was shot dead earlier this year inside a bank in Babolsar. The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence of qisas (retribution) against the assailant on November 15. According to reports and images released on Wednesday, April 25, the former representative of Ali Khamenei in Sistan and Baluchestan and a member of the Assembly of Experts was shot dead in a Babolsar bank. Iranian news agencies reported at the time that Abbasali Soleimani was shot from behind while sitting in a Babolsar bank before noon. A video published by the Fars news agency, affiliated with security institutions, showed an individual with a weapon moving freely in the bank and shooting Soleimani from behind. Some sources identified the assailant as a 'bank guard.' Mahmoud Hosseini-Pour, the governor of Mazandaran, stated regarding the incident that 'the assailant had a known identity and was one of the personnel of security companies that usually provide security services for banks and was not from outside, which is why the weapon was in the assailant's possession and was not obtained from outside.' Unofficial reports and speculations at the time suggested that 'economic pressure' on the assailant and his 'hatred' towards the clergy were reasons for this act. Despite the execution of the assailant, no further information or details about the motive or background of the individual involved in this incident have been released. Soleimani, a representative of Sistan and Baluchestan in the Assembly of Experts, was killed in the north of the country and had served for years as the Friday prayer leader in Zahedan, Kashan, and Babolsar, holding responsibilities as the representative of the Supreme Leader and the head of the leadership institution in several universities. The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic confirmed the death sentence of the 'murder suspect' of the former member of the Assembly of Experts. The execution machine in Iran continues to claim victims; human rights sources reported the execution of several death sentences. This was the sixth incident in recent weeks; another cleric was attacked with a 'cold weapon' in Saveh, and a cleric in Qom was attacked with 'knife blows.' Police confirmed that a 35-year-old cleric was 'run over' in Tehran.