Baluch Hamid Barahouyi and Ahmad Narouyi Secretly Executed in Mashhad

According to Hal Vash, two Baluch men were secretly executed in Mashhad Central Prison (Vakil Abad) on 10 August. Their identities have been reported as 45-year-old Hamid Barahouyi (Barichi) and 44-year-old Ahmad Narouyi who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges in the same case.

Hamid (pictured left) was a father of five from Margan village in Hirmand and Ahmad (pictured right)  was a father of two from Zahak.

An informed source told Hal Vash: “Hamid and Ahmad were arrested in Mashhad around two years ago for drug-related charges and sentenced to death by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court. They were transferred for execution on 9 August and executed on 10 August without their families being notified and last visits.”

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

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. Furthermore, in the first six months of 2023, 20% of the at least 354 executions were Baluch people.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year for the past three years. At least 206 people were executed for drug-related charges in the first six months of 2023, a 126% rise compared to the same period in 2022 when 91 were executed. 40 people were executed in the same period in 2021.

The number of drug executions dramatically dropped in 2018 following a 2017 Amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Laws. Consequently, drug executions ranged between 24-30 per annum between 2018-2020. The Amendment was reversed in practice in 2021 when executions increased ten-fold to 126 in 2021 and doubled again in 2022 with 256 drug-related executions