Iran court issues death sentence against man who killed two clerics

Officials said the attacker was a 21-year-old ethnic Uzbek from Afghanistan with radical Sunni views.

 Shiite clerics walk inside the shrine of Imam Ali ,on the first time of religious school called (al-Hawza al-Ilmiyyah) reopening since the the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, ,in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq November 10, 2021.  (photo credit: REUTERS/ALAA AL-MARJANI)
Shiite clerics walk inside the shrine of Imam Ali ,on the first time of religious school called (al-Hawza al-Ilmiyyah) reopening since the the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, ,in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq November 10, 2021.
(photo credit: REUTERS/ALAA AL-MARJANI)

A court in Iran has sentenced a man to death for killing two clerics and wounding a third in a knife attack at a holy Shi'ite Muslim shrine in April, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

"The revolutionary court sentenced him to death ... and his lawyer has appealed. The case has been sent to the Supreme Court."

Irani judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi

Officials said the attacker was a 21-year-old ethnic Uzbek from Afghanistan with radical Sunni views. He was arrested after the stabbings at Iran's largest Shi'ite Muslim religious complex in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Attacks on clerics and government officials have been rare in Iran after authorities tightened security measures and cracked down on opposition groups following a string of attacks and bombings that killed dozens of officials and clerics following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

However, a senior conservative cleric was slightly hurt after being attacked by a man with a knife after Friday prayers last week in the central city of Isfahan.

 Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims walk on a road after entering Iraq through Wasit province at the Iraq-Iran border crossing, December 8, 2014. (credit: REUTERS)
Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims walk on a road after entering Iraq through Wasit province at the Iraq-Iran border crossing, December 8, 2014. (credit: REUTERS)

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