Iran: Baluch Prisoner Mehran Narouyi Executed in Isfahan

According to Iran Human Rights, 34-year-old Mehran Narouyi who had been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution on May 15, was executed in the early hours of May 17 in Isfahan Central Prison.

According to the Baluch Activists Campaign which first broke the news, prison officials had told his family after their last visit with him that a letter from Isfahan’s Imam of Friday prayers and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was the only way to stop his execution, which the latter were unwilling to do.

Mehran Narouyi’s co-defendant, Anvar Narouyi, was executed in Isfahan Central Prison on January 28. Mehran was denied access to a lawyer throughout his interrogations and trial.

It has been almost four years since an Article was added to the Anti-Narcotics Law in 2017 to limit death sentences specifically and provide a general degree of reprieve in some cases. However, while the numbers reduced that year, the death penalty is still being used in drug-related cases.

According to Iran Human Rights’ Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, at least 25 people were executed on drug-related charges in 2020. In 2021, at least 25 people have so far been executed on drug-related charges. On May 3, IHR published a report on the death penalty in the first four months of 2021 expressing concern at the significant increase in the number of drug-related executions and continues to warn of the continuation of this trend.

The wave of executions of Baluch citizens which began in late 2020 has also continued, with at least 18 Baluch prisoners having been executed so far in 2021.