Spokesman: US Not Qualified to Interfere in Iran’s Internal Affairs

Mohammad Salas, driver of the bus that killed three police troops and wounded a number of others during the February 19 riots on Tehran’s Pasdaran Street, was executed on Monday morning.

The convict had received the death sentence on March 19 after several court sessions. During the clashes on Pasdaran Street, Salas drove the bus into a group of police officers, killing three and wounding a number of others.

Qassemi said that Salas had access to a lawyer, confessed to his deeds and was convicted and sentenced to death, adding that the sentence was not related to his personal beliefs.

He blasted the US administration for interfering in Iran’s internal affairs, and said Washington which has withdrawn from the internationally-endorsed agreements and adopted anti-human rights policies against immigrants, separated parents from their children and settles them in camps “is not in a position to interfere and darken the internal legal processes of other independent countries and change the realities”.

The riots took place in February during an unauthorized gathering by the so-called Dervish sect near a police station, during which they engaged in clashes with ordinary people and police forces, according to officials.

During the clashes, Salas ploughed a bus through a group of policemen, killing three of them.

A member of the Basij volunteer force also lost his life and another one went to coma following separate car-ramming and stabbing attacks at the site.

More than 300 people, among them the drivers of the bus and the car as well as the main elements behind the incident, had been arrested.

In a statement at the time, the leader of Dervish sect, Nourali Tabandeh, apologized to the state and the nation for the riot and the violence exercised by his followers. He strongly condemned the attacks of his followers on the police, calling for the perpetrators of acts of violence to be brought to justice.