Five Including Three Baluch Executed in Yazd

According to Iran Human Rights, five men including three Baluch minorities were executed in Yazd Central Prison on 4 May. Of the five, four were sentenced to death for drug-related charges and one for murder.

The four men executed for drug-related charges were identified as: Sabour Shehbakhsh, a 32-year-old Baluch man whose brother was also executed for drug charges several years ago, Amir Ramshak, a 35-year-old Baluch father of two, Abdolbasir Bajem Totazehi, a 29-year-old Baluch man on death row for nine years, and Sadegh Mashhouri from Yazd.

Abbas Piralayi, a 40-year-old man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was also executed at the prison that day.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “They’d given Abbas Piralayi until Saturday to come up with the diya. But he was executed before the deadline. Abdolbasir had denied the drug charges in court and never accepted the charges at his three hearings.”

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Since 29 April, at least 20 Baluch men and women have been executed in Zahedan, Birjand, Mashhad, Bandarabbas, Minab, Yazd and Iranshahr prisons.

Ethnic minorities, the Baluch in particular, are grossly overrepresented in execution numbers in Iran. In 2022, at least 174 Baluch minorities including 3 women, were executed in 22 prisons across Iran, making up 30% of overall executions. This is while they represent just 2-6% of Iran’s population.

Baluch minorities also represented almost half of drug-related executions in 2022. 47.3% of the 256 people executed for drug-related charges were Baluch.