Iranian Arab activist gunned down in Netherlands

An prominent Arab Iranian political activist who founded a group that sought independence for Iran's Ahwazi Arabs was shot dead in the Netherlands on Wednesday, police have said.

Ahmad Mola Nissi, 52, founded the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA) in 1999 as part of efforts to seek a seperate state in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province.

Iran considers the group, which has an armed wing, to be a terrorist organisation.

Dutch police said in a statement on Thursday that a suspect was arrested in The Hague while attempting to get away.

"His involvement in the incident is being investigated," the statement said, adding that "emergency services were at the scene quickly and reanimated the victim, but he died shortly later".

Iran has long been accused by rights groups of abuses against Ahwazi Arabs, who are a minority in the Persian-majority country.

Iranian authorities have in recent years carried out sweeping arrests of Ahwazi activists, in moves that have been described as "alarming" and "arbitrary" by Amnesty International.

Tehran has in the past accused Saudi Arabia of funding Arab seperatists, who have carried out attacks in Iran.