Deputy Head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Esmail Kowsari said on Thursday that Saudi officials should have provided the Iranian inmates with access to a defense attorney, and allowed them to try to defend themselves.
He added that Saudi Arabia's recent execution of the Iranian prisoners is indicative of the kingdom’s revulsion and hatred towards Iran, suggesting that the Iranian Foreign Ministry file a lawsuit against Saudi authorities over the case.
Kowsari further described the killing of the Iranian prisoners in Saudi Arabia as “a criminal act,” stressing that Majlis will follow the issue alongside the Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry plans to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia over the issue.
On April 18, Press TV reported that Saudi officials had executed eight Iranian sailors in the eastern city of Dammam without any legal proceedings.
According to the Saudi Al-Tagheer news channel, the executions were carried out on April 15 on the order of the Saudi Interior Ministry, which has been implicated in the unrest in Syria and the violence in Iraq as well.
On May 30, the Persian-language Tabnak news website reported that Saudi officials in Dammam have executed 10 more Iranian citizens.
The website added that a total of 25 Iranians are kept at Dammam prison and 18 of them have been executed in two stages.
The prisoners are Iranian sailors who were arrested on a fishing boat in international waters 70 miles off the coast of Saudi Arabia six years ago on charges of drug possession.
The serial executions came despite an April 18 telephone conversation between Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Saudi counterpart, Saud al-Faisal, during which they discussed the issue and stressed the importance of exercising prudence.
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