TEHRAN -- According to a statement released by the Free Algerian Officers Movement, some 47 dissident Algerian officers were executed in a military based in southern Algeria on Sunday.

The statement, which was received in Madrid by the AFP, said the officers were executed because they had refused to take part in crimes against civilians. It added that the officers had been imprisoned in Boughar military base, 150 kilometers south of Algiers.

The victims, who had almost completed their prison term, were expected to be released from prison on March 15. However, they were executed on February 25 by a special commando unit dispatched to the military base by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the army and the head of the Algerian Security Department, the statement added.

The movement, in its previous statement, had revealed that the Algerian government forces the military officers to kill the innocent civilians