A picture obtained by AFP outside Iran on Sept. 21, 2022, shows Iranian demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini, days after she died in police custody. (Credit: AFP)
Iran's judiciary said Thursday that five people are facing the death penalty over an October attack that killed at least 13 people at a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Shiraz.
The five were charged with "corruption on earth," a capital offense in Iran, for the attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum on Oct. 26, said the judiciary's Mizan Online website.
Kazem Moussavi, the judiciary chief in Shiraz's Fars province, said the case was expedited "in the shortest possible time," according to Mizan.
The accused were also charged with membership of the Islamic State (IS) group and "conspiracy against the security of the country," Moussavi said.
If found guilty, the defendants could appeal to Iran's supreme court, he added.
The IS-claimed attack came more than a month after protests erupted across Iran over the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman.
Mahsa Amini, 22, died after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country's dress code for women.
One of the attack perpetrators, identified by media in Iran as Hamed Badakhshan, died of injuries sustained during his arrest, according to authorities.
The Islamic republic last month said 26 "takfiri terrorists" from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan had been arrested in connection to the attack.
In Shiite-dominated Iran, the term takfiri generally refers to jihadists or proponents of radical Sunni Islam.
The five were charged with "corruption on earth," a capital offense in Iran, for the attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum on Oct. 26, said the judiciary's Mizan Online...