The head of the judiciary in Iran's eastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province has told a local mosque it must provide proof to back up claims of an assassination attempt on the Sunni imam of Zahedan, Molavi Abdolhamid, or face legal consequences.
Local news reports quoted sources recently as saying an intelligence operation by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had attempted the "biological assassination" of the imam, which was thwarted by the identification and arrest of an individual assigned to carry out the killing.
Ali Mostafavi-Nia, the head of the judiciary in Sistan-Baluchistan, disputed the reports on June 22 and said the individual in question had lodged a complaint saying he was illegally detained by personnel of the Grand Makki Mosque of Zahedan, the largest Sunni mosque in Iran.
Mostafavi-Nia emphasized that the mosque must substantiate claims that the individual intended to poison students and Molavi Abdolhamid and that "failure to provide such proof would result in legal consequences."
The office of the Sunni imam of Zahedan confirmed the detention of a suspicious individual at the mosque and suggested that the person could be affiliated with certain government institutions. It gave no evidence to back up the claim.
The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, claimed individuals associated with Molavi Abdolhamid arrested a Sunni seminary student on the pretext of theft and subsequently detained him illegally.
In December, a leaked document from the hard-line Fars agency said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told security and military officials to try and disgrace Molavi Abdolhamid, a spiritual leader of Iran's Sunni Muslims who is a vocal critic of the government, instead of arresting him.
The government has unleashed a brutal crackdown on the months of unrest -- one of the deepest challenges to the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979 -- that erupted following the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.
Molavi Abdolhamid has said senior officials, including Khamenei, were "responsible" for the killing of protesters during the November 30 massacre in Zahedan.
Sunni Muslims are in the majority in Sistan-Baluchistan Province in southeastern Iran, where Abdolhamid is based, but make up only about 10 percent of the population in Shi'a-dominated Iran overall.
Since Amini's death, more than 500 people have been killed in the police crackdown, according to rights groups. Several thousand more have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.