Balochistan: Iran executes four Baloch in Bandar Abbas prison

DOZZAAP (ZAHEDAN): On March 6, 2023, the Iranian authorities executed four Baloch prisons including 30 years old Mohammed Javashiri son of Seyed Mohammad from Klinik Iranshahr, Bahram Behzadi son Jangi from Ramshek, Amin Javashiri son of Sahebdad from Lashar and Hamid Shahouzahi son of Bidullah from Zahedan.

According to Baloch Activists’ Campaign, the victims were accused of narcotic-related offenses. Their families were not provided the chance to meet their loved one before execution.

Amnesty International’s 2 March 2023 report states: “The Iranian authorities have executed at least one Ahwazi Arab, 14 Kurds and 13 Baluchis following grossly unfair trials and sentenced at least a dozen others to death since the start of the year, marking a chilling escalation in the use of the death penalty as a tool of repression against ethnic minorities.

 The report further added that between December 2022 and January 2023, at least six young men from the Baluch community were sentenced to death in separate trials about protests in Balochistan in September 2022.

“It is harrowing that executions routinely occur amid the systematic use of torture-tainted ‘confessions’ to convict defendants in grossly unfair trials.

“The world must act now to pressure the Iranian authorities to establish an official moratorium on executions, quash unfair convictions and death sentences, and drop all charges related to the peaceful participation in protests,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa