Iran puts to death another Baluchi prisoner despite UN calls to halt execution
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian authorities put to death another Baluchi prisoner in the early hours of Saturday morning, raising the number of those executed in the past two months to nearly 30, despite calls by the United Nations Human Rights office and Amnesty International to halt the executions.
Javid Dehghani Khald was detained on June 5, 2015 and disappeared into Iran’s network of prisons. Authorities did not inform his family for three months, “thereby subjecting him and his family to the international crime of enforced disappearance,” Amnesty International said in a statement on January 28.
He was charged with enmity against God by cooperating with anti-establishment groups in the killing of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel on April 9, 2015 in Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Mizanonline, the news agency of Iran’s judiciary, claimed Khald was known as Mohammad Omar and a leader of Jaish ul-Adl, a Baluchi armed group fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran in eastern and southeastern regions of the country. The agency said that on top of the incident in April 2015, he was also involved in the abduction of five border guards on February 6, 2014. One of the guards was killed. The agency provided no evidence to back the charge.
Amnesty International said authorities extracted a confession from the 31-year-old in a “grossly unfair” trial by subjecting him to severe torture, including pulling out his thumb nails.
Khald was hanged in the early hours of Saturday morning in Zahedan prison. He is the seventeenth known prisoner to be executed from the oppressed Baluchi community in the past two months.
“They executed Javid Dehghani Khald. From Baluchestan, only the sound of the death knell can be heard,” Baluchi activist Habibollah Sarbazi tweeted on Saturday.
Hundreds of Baluchi citizens are detained every year in Iran on charges of cooperating with Baluchi armed groups operating on the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as drug-related offenses. Baluchi activists say the authorities use these charges as an excuse to silence an ethnic minority that has been marginalized for decades. Sistan and Baluchestan province is considered one of the most impoverished parts of the country with high levels of poverty and unemployment.
“In convicting and sentencing Javid Dehghan to death [May 2017], the court relied on torture-tainted “confessions” and ignored the serious due process abuses committed by Revolutionary Guards agents and prosecution authorities during the investigation process,” Amnesty said.
The UN Human Rights Office weighed in on the issue on Friday, calling on Iranian authorities to halt Khald’s execution. “We strongly condemn the series of executions – at least 28 – since mid-December, including of people from minority groups. We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law.”
The execution of Baluchi prisoners comes at a time when Iranian authorities have detained at least 80 activists and students from another oppressed minority, the Kurds, according to Kurdish human rights organisations.
Javid Dehghani Khald was detained on June 5, 2015 and disappeared into Iran’s network of prisons. Authorities did not inform his family for three months, “thereby subjecting him and his family to the international crime of enforced disappearance,” Amnesty International said in a statement on January 28.
He was charged with enmity against God by cooperating with anti-establishment groups in the killing of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel on April 9, 2015 in Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Mizanonline, the news agency of Iran’s judiciary, claimed Khald was known as Mohammad Omar and a leader of Jaish ul-Adl, a Baluchi armed group fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran in eastern and southeastern regions of the country. The agency said that on top of the incident in April 2015, he was also involved in the abduction of five border guards on February 6, 2014. One of the guards was killed. The agency provided no evidence to back the charge.
Amnesty International said authorities extracted a confession from the 31-year-old in a “grossly unfair” trial by subjecting him to severe torture, including pulling out his thumb nails.
Khald was hanged in the early hours of Saturday morning in Zahedan prison. He is the seventeenth known prisoner to be executed from the oppressed Baluchi community in the past two months.
“They executed Javid Dehghani Khald. From Baluchestan, only the sound of the death knell can be heard,” Baluchi activist Habibollah Sarbazi tweeted on Saturday.
Hundreds of Baluchi citizens are detained every year in Iran on charges of cooperating with Baluchi armed groups operating on the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as drug-related offenses. Baluchi activists say the authorities use these charges as an excuse to silence an ethnic minority that has been marginalized for decades. Sistan and Baluchestan province is considered one of the most impoverished parts of the country with high levels of poverty and unemployment.
“In convicting and sentencing Javid Dehghan to death [May 2017], the court relied on torture-tainted “confessions” and ignored the serious due process abuses committed by Revolutionary Guards agents and prosecution authorities during the investigation process,” Amnesty said.
The UN Human Rights Office weighed in on the issue on Friday, calling on Iranian authorities to halt Khald’s execution. “We strongly condemn the series of executions – at least 28 – since mid-December, including of people from minority groups. We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law.”
The execution of Baluchi prisoners comes at a time when Iranian authorities have detained at least 80 activists and students from another oppressed minority, the Kurds, according to Kurdish human rights organisations.