TEHRAN- At his trial on Sunday, the ringleader of the terrorist and separatist organization Al-Ahwaziya admitted that Stockholm and the Swedish intelligence service have been supporting him.

Farajollah Chaab, also known as Habib Asyoud, said during a court proceeding in Tehran that Swedish officials gave him a device and instructed him to press a button in the event that he was in danger. He also noted that they assured him that they would rush to his rescue after he did so.

The defendant was questioned by Judge Iman Afshari about whether he acknowledges that he is a Swedish national and receives help from the government and intelligence agencies of that country which he answered that the Swedish government supports him and that he is a resident and national of Sweden.

“They gave me a device so I could press its button when I felt danger, and it would alert the Swedish government security agents, and they would rescue me wherever I was,” he confessed. 

In September 2018, a terrorist incident in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, was carried out by the Al-Ahwaziya group led by Chaab.

The ringleader of the terrorist cell was responsible for killing innocent people and seriously damaging public property in Khuzestan using explosives, grenades, and Klashnikov guns, according to the lawyer for the relatives of people slain in the terror incident.

The defendant should receive the death punishment, the attorney said.

During the session, the prosecutor's representative Amin Vaziri said that Sweden had become a refuge for terrorist organizations including PJAK, the Nadhal Movement, and MKO.

“Chaab is a Swedish citizen and has been receiving support from the Swedish government while he has had a red warning and has been under prosecution of international organizations,” he added.

The prosecutor's representative mentioned that Chaab was detained in Poland in 2019 after traveling there to attend a conference of terrorist organizations, but the Swedish government intervened and the U.S. administration started lobbying to have him returned to Sweden on a special flight so that he could mastermind terrorist activities there.

The so-called Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (SMLA) took credit for the attack on a military parade in Ahvaz in September 2018, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people—including members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and civilian bystanders—and the injury of 70 others.

Following a series of specific and integrated efforts by Iranian intelligence services, Chaab was apprehended in November 2020. He initially appeared in a Tehran court in mid-January following his detention.

Late in February, at the trial's fifth session, the prosecution produced evidence revealing Saudi Arabia's plans to destabilize Iran.

Chaab admitted that the Saudi intelligence service pushed to combine all terrorist and separatist movements under a single umbrella organization to counter Iran after the formation of the Islamic Awakening movement, according to prosecutor's representative. 

He continued by saying that the Saudi intelligence service had also launched a number of satellite channels to sow discord in Iran to divide the country.

According to Vaziri, the terrorist mastermind also admitted that Saudi Arabia has supported terrorist organizations with the ultimate purpose of promoting Takfiri doctrine in Iran.