Balochistan: Former police chief of Chabahar jailed for 15 months

DOZZAAP (Zahedan): The former police commander of Chabahar, who had sexually assaulted a detained Baloch girl named Maho Baloch, has reportedly been sentenced to imprisonment and dismissed from government and public services.

According to details, the Baloch Activists Campaign has reported that a military tribunal in Baluchistan sentenced Ebrahim Kochzai to 15 months imprisonment under Articles 55, 78 and 38 of the Law on Punishment of Crimes of the Armed Forces and Paragraph  P of Article 134 and Article 27 of the Islamic Penal Code for the crime for having sparked an atmosphere of skepticism towards the police.

He was also given 15 months for having written “fake police statements” and 15 months in prison for “scrapping (some) orders, and for threats.”

All the sentences are served concurrently in Iran, so he will serve 15 months only.

According to Mizan Online, the court ruling was “definitive,” adding that Kouchakzai faces “other charges” and is still under investigation.

It should be mentioned that many cases against Ebrahim Kochzai are still being investigated and processed in the Supreme Court in the context of some other accusations.

On 27 September 2022, Colonel Ebrahim Kochzai, the police commander of Chabahar, raped a 15-year-old Baloch girl named Maho Baloch in his office during interrogation.

After revealing this news to the family and following them, the judicial and military authorities pressured Maho’s family to be silent about this issue.

Many Baloch clerics, including Maulana Abdul Ghaffar Naqshbandi, demanded the public trial of Ibrahim Kochzai.

With the reaction of Baloch clerics, many of them were summoned and arrested by judicial and military authorities.

The rape of the Baloch girl sparked anger and protests across Iranian Baluchistan. The protests started in Chabahar and continue after more than 4 months.

During the “Maho Baloch” protest movement, hundreds of Baloch people were killed and injured including on the bloody Fridays of Zahedan and Khash, and hundreds of others were arrested and suppressed by various methods.

Rape in Iran is punishable by death by hanging. However, it is yet to be seen whether Kochakazai will be convicted for Maho Baloch’s rape and sentenced or he will be spared to save the image of Iran’s security forces.

It is also important to note that this former police chief is sentenced amid several other reports of the rape of young boys and girls in the IRGC and Iranian intelligence services’ interrogation and detention centers.