Balochistan: Iran awards more than six years sentence to outspoken Baloch scholar

DOZZAAP (Zahedan): Iran has sentenced the already imprisoned Baloch scholar, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Kohi, to six years and four months in imprisonment for his candidness and criticising Iranian state injustices against Baloch people.  

According to the details, Maulana Fazal Rehman Kohi informed his family on Wednesday that he had been informed about the punishment and said that he informed that he was against the state [Iran] that is why he was sentenced.

According to sources Maulana Fazal Rehman Kohi has been tried in a closed court. In this court, no attention has been paid to the defense of the lawyer assigned to him, and the charges mentioned in the case have not been announced. His sentence was also announced by the security forces.

He always openly protested against the massacre and execution of the oppressed Baloch by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the police. He strongly opposed the Iranian state atrocities against the Baloch nation.

He was exposing the Iranian forces’ evil intention and informing the Baloch nation that the problem of Baloch was not of Shia and Sunni rivalry but a tyrant and oppressed.

In December 2019, Maulana Fazal Rehman was summoned to a Special Clerical Court in Mashhad and was arrested and has been in Mashhad prison since then.

People in Iranian occupied Balochistan, mainly the youth, had strongly protested against his arrest. The peaceful protesters were severely beaten by the security forces, and several people were injured in the clashes. It is said that 2 people lost their lives.

Mustafa Mahami, a representative of Khamenei in Balochistan had told a group of students after Kohi’s arrest: “One should not think that they can say anything from behind a podium and no one will say anything to him.”

The repression of Sunni citizens in Iran and the expression of security charges against this them are among the human rights violations and in line with the suppression of freedom of expression and opinion in Iran, which is emphasized in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It should be noted that Maulana Kohi had also strongly protested and opposed the sending of Baloch youth from occupied Balochistan to Syria to defend the government of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan Raaji Zrombesh (Balochistan National Movement) has strongly condemned the conviction of Maulana Fazal Rehman Kohi and demanded his immediate and unconditional release.

In a brief statement, the Raaji Zrombesh said that the Islamic Republic of Iran has sentenced Maulana Kohi for he spoke against the regime’s cruelty and discrimination in Balochistan.

It is necessary to remind that in Tehran, people are more critical of the regime’s inefficiency as well as against the regime’s discriminatory policies but the regime does not seem so sensitive to them.

The Balochistan National Movement maintained that the regime fears of the awakening of the Baloch nation. Thus, the dictatorship regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran is trying to suffocate any voice that raises for Balochistan.

According to the Balochistan Raaji Zrombesh statement when Molvi Kohi was going to the regime’s Rouhani court in Mashhad, he said that he will not stop defending the people under any circumstances.

His resistance has caused the regime to issue a heavy sentence.