Iran Condemns US’ Meddlesome Statement on Rioter’s Execution

In a Tuesday statement, Qassemi underlined that the rioter enjoyed his legal right to be represented by a lawyer in the court during his trial.

Mohammad Salas, the driver of the bus that killed several police forces during the February 19 unrest in Tehran’s Pasdaran Street, confessed to his crime and was sentenced to death following legal and judicial procedures in the Iranian courts, he said.

The spokesman underlined that the rioter’s death penalty had nothing to do with his personal beliefs.

Qassemi then pointed out that the US government is itself notorious for violating many international treaties.

“Over the past year, the US has unilaterally pulled out of a number of international deals, violated its pledges and evaded its responsibilities under the international law.”

The spokesman went on to say that along with these violations, the US president’s anti-human rights and discriminatory policies on immigration, particularly his scandalous decision to separate immigrant children from their parents and accommodate them in immigration camps, have sparked protests by not only a large number of countries, international bodies and figures but also closest people to the White House.

With such a record, the US is not in a position to interfere in the internal legal affairs of other independent countries, tarnish their image and distort realities about them.

Qassemi’s statement came after the US condemned Iran’s execution of Mohammad Salas, 51, who was hanged early on June 18.

“Salas’s rushed execution is the latest example of the Iranian regime’s disregard for the human rights of its citizens,” Heather Nauert, Spokeswoman for the US State Department, said in a statement late on June 18.

Nauert cited reports that Salas was denied access to a lawyer and said his trial was “grossly unfair,” excluding witnesses who could have testified that Salas was already in custody at the time of the police officers’ deaths.

Salas received the death sentence on March 19 after several court sessions.

During the clashes in Pasdaran Street, Salas drove the bus into a group of police officers, killing three and wounding a number of others. In a separate attack, one member of the Basij forces was run over and killed, while another was stabbed to death.

Police spokesperson said 30 police forces were injured and many public and private properties were destroyed in the riot. The security forces were trying to quell the riot involving Gonabadi Dervishes, a Sufi community in Iran.