Iran: Prisoner Abdolbaset Khesht Executed in Zahedan

According to Iran Human Rights, a male prisoner was executed at Zahedan Central Prison in the early hours of Sunday, December 20. His identity has been established as Abdolbaset Khesht, the son of Pir Mohammad, who was on death row for the “premeditated murder of a police officer.” The murder he was executed for committing, had taken place eight years ago.

Informed sources told IHR that Abdolbaset Khesht had never accepted responsibility for the murder.

Speaking to IHR, an informed source IHR said: “Abdolbaset was imprisoned for the murder of a police officer named Mosayeb, but Abdolbaset’s relatives say he was not the murderer and the murderer was a person named [name withheld by IHR].”

According to an informed source of the Baluch Activists Campaign which first reported the execution: “The security officer was killed at the intersection of Kahir in Kenarak county. Abdolbaset was there, and when he sees all the officers he runs from there and drops his national ID card. He was identified and arrested by security forces a while later.”

At the time of writing, Abdolbaset Khesht’s execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran. His execution comes a day after the execution of two other prisoners on “drug-related” charges in the same prison.

According to lawyer Mostafa Nilli, one of his other clients at the prison, Hassan Dehvari had been returned to his cell after his execution was postponed. Sharing the news on Twitter, he added that he would be filing a request for a retrial at the Supreme Court in the coming days.

According to Iran Human Rights’ annual report, at least 225 of the 280 of those executed in 2019 were charged with "premeditated murder."

As there are no legal distinctions made between murder and manslaughter, whether voluntary or involuntary in Iran, those charged under the umbrella term of “premeditated murder” will receive the death penalty regardless of intent and the circumstances.