Iran: Prisoners Mehraban Barahoui and Khodadad Nahtani Executed in Zahedan

Iran Human Rights previously reported the execution of political prisoner, Abdulhamid Mir-Baluchzehi at the prison on December 26. New information has now revealed that two other Baluch prisoners were also executed at the prison on that day.

Habibollah Sarbazi, a Baluch civil rights activist revealed the identity of the two prisoners as 60 year-old Mehraban Barahoui and 73 year-old Khodadad Nahtani.

An informed source has told the Baluch Activists Campaign: “Mehraban Barahoui was using his own car as a taxi service across Zahedan when a passenger planted drugs in his car as luggage, and he was arrested by security forces on 27 December 2017.”

He continues: “Following his arrest, he protested that the drugs in the car did not belong to him. Since he did not have a criminal record, the Supreme Court had mitigated his sentence but the he was sentenced to death by Branch One of the Zahedan Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mehran Bameri which was upheld by his deputy, Seyed Reza Javad Mousavi.”

At the time of writing, the execution of the two men have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

There has been a dramatic drop in drug-related executions since a new article was added to the Anti-Drugs Law around three years ago. The amendment, which was passed into law in 2017, specifically restricts the death penalty and provides a degree of reduction in some drug-related cases.

According to Iran Human Rights’ annual report on the death penalty in Iran, at least 30 people were executed on drug-related charges in 2019.