Iran executes two Baloch prisoners in latest surge in executions in Balochistan

DOZZAP (Zahedan): The Iranian authorities on Saturday, February 13, executed two Baloch on ‘drug-related charges’.

Jamaluddin Brahui son of Kohdadad and Mohammad Barahui son of Nabi Bakhsh were executed in a prison in the eastern Iranian city of Birjand in Khorasan province.

The Rasank News reported that five prisoners were executed on the dawn of Saturday morning and so far only two of them have been named.

According to the Campaign for Baloch Activists, Mohammad Brahui lived in Zahedan was from Jotigh village in Zabol city in Iranian occupied Balochistan. He was arrested on May 19, 2020, in Birjand.

On Thursday, February 11, 2021, Mohammad’s family was summoned to Birjand Prison for a final visit, but only his mother was allowed to visit him.

Mohammad’s body was buried on Sunday in his ancestral village of Jotigh. Muhammad left behind two daughters and a one-year-old son.

Jamaluddin Brahui was from the village of Safedabeh in the Zabol city, who was arrested two years ago at the Salabad checkpoint in Birjand and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

However, on Thursday, February 11, 2021, he was transferred to prison quarantine to serve his death sentence.

Jamaluddin’s family went to Birjand Prison for their last visit on Friday and managed to visit him.

Jamaluddin was also a ‘Hafiz-e-Quran’ (a memorizer), who had learned the Quran by heart and lead the prayer congregation in Birjand prison where he was executed.

According to Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM), “Several executions were recently carried out against prisoners from the Baloch minority in Iran.

“At least 23 Balochi prisoners have been executed in Zahedan, Mashhad and Isfahan prisons since mid-December 2020. Many of those executed had been convicted on drug or national security charges.”

The latest surge in executions of Baloch prisoners by Iran has alarmed the international human rights groups and the UN.

The Amnesty International and the UN in their separate statements had urged Iran to halt executions of Baloch and Ahwazi Arab people’s executions.

Even today as Balochwarna News was filing this news report the Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal to about the two Baloch death row prisoners saying, “Death row prisoners from Iran’s Baluchi ethnic minority, Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i, are at risk of execution. They have been subjected to serious human rights violations including enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment to extract “confessions” used to convict and sentence them to death in unfair trials.

“Since mid-December 2020, the Iranian authorities have executed 18 Baluchi men, raising fears that Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i may be executed imminently.”

Sources reported that more than a hundred prisoners are currently on death row in Iranian occupied Balochistan’s capital city Zahedan Central Prison alone, including for crimes not involving intentional killing.