Iran arrests most terrorists behind assassination of Zabol prosecutor

Iran announced on Tuesday that it has arrested 10 people in connection with the early November assassination of the prosecutor of Zabol city in Sistan and Balouchestan province. “Ten elements behind the assassination of Zabol prosecutor have been arrested,” General Director of Sistan and Balouchestan's provincial Justice Department Hojjatoleslam Ebrahim Hamidi told FNA today, adding that "two of the detainees are women". He explained that the security forces first arrested one of the terrorists who was present at the crime scene, which immediately led to the apprehension of other culprits with direct and indirect links to the incident. “Today, over 90% of the elements behind the attack have been arrested and handed over to the Judiciary,” Hamidi said. He added that one or two other culprits have also been identified, who are now being chased by the security forces. The assailants killed the prosecutor of Zabol city in the Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province, Mousa Nouri, and his driver while they were on their way to work in the early hours of November 6. In mid November, Iranian Police Commander Brigadier General Esmayeel Ahmadi Moqaddam announced that his forces have identified and arrested several suspects in connection with the attack. “We have come to certain clues and our colleagues have identified and arrested some suspects (in this relation)," General Ahmadi Moqaddam told reporters. "Once we come to the final results, we will inform the public of the details,” Ahmadi Moqaddam added. Also, Head of Zabol Security Council Hooshang Nazeri told FNA in November that "the terrorists who assassinated the Zabol Prosecutor, Mousa Nouri, and his companion have already confessed to their crime". After the assassination, the outlawed Jeish Al-Adl radical Sunni Wahhabi movement whose members had killed 14 Iranian border guards two weeks before Nouri's terror incident, claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Zabol prosecutor. But, Iranian officials rejected the claim, saying Jeish Al-Adl was just bluffing to boast about its power. Iranian officials said another terrorist group had most likely conducted the attack. “Jeish Al-Adl group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Zabol prosecutor, but it is lying and we did not want to announce this issue on TV; when the group saw that the assassination had taken place, it wanted to attribute it to itself,” Iran's Deputy Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Rayeesi said last month. He underlined that the judiciary is suspicious of the role of another group and will continue this line of probe until achieving results, adding that the public will be informed of the results once investigations end. “This group (Jeish Al-Adl) has made mistakes in its statement; first they said that they killed one person while two people had been killed and they also gave a wrong place and wrong time for the assassination,” he said, explaining that Jeish Al-Adl couldn't have been behind the assassination.