Iran Executions: Four Afghanistani Prisoners Hanged at Birjand Prison

Based on information from Iran Human Rights (IHR) sources, in the morning of Tuesday, October 2, 2018, four Afghan national prisoners were executed in Birjand Central Prison, on charges of armed drug trafficking and the attempted murder of a police officer.

Identities of these four prisoners have been disclosed: Two brothers, ShahMohammad and EidMohammad MiranZehi, Mohammad MiranZehi and AhmadShah SaghZehi. Their co-defendant, Seraj Gavkhor, who is currently detained in Birjand Central Prison, has been sentenced to 25 years and one day in prison.

In August 2018, Mohammad MiranZehi, 50, told Iran Human Rights: ”We confessed to murdering a government official under the duress of torture, there were no drugs and weapons seized from us, nor we abducted anyone, we are unaware of the armed conflict and three days after the incident, when we were passing the border, we got arrested and taken to the intelligence office of Birjand but we were coerced to utter false confessions; but we refused the accusation of murder in the court, saying that the accusations against us were baseless. Since we confessed in intelligence office, the judge ignored our pleadings. We did not kill any officer. Just we were made scapegoats for the murder of an officer at the time of illegally crossing the border into Iran."

He added: “They subjected us to the cruellest forms of torture to press us to confess. They told us that you were involved in an armed conflict that had taken the life of an officer and we refused it. Then we were told that if you accept the responsibility of drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Iran, we would stop your death sentence, again we refused to accept it. Then they suggested the abduction case, again we refused it. We proclaimed our innocence before the judge, stating that Intelligence agents exerted torture on us and we acceded to the torturers’ demands.”

The four prisoners were sentenced to death by branch 2 of Birjand Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Nabavi, for the charge of “Armed drug trafficking” and their verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court.

News of the aforementioned executions has not been announced by state-run media of Iran, as of the time of this report.

Birjand Central Prison is in the city of Birjand, capital of Southern Khorasan Province.