Baluch Emambakhsh Gorgij Secretly Executed in Torbat Heydarieh

According to Hal Vash, at least one Baluch man was executed in Torbat Heydarieh Prison in Khorasan Razavi province on 8 October. His identity has been reported as Emambakhsh Gorgij who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

According to the report, Emambakhsh Gorgij’s execution was carried out secretly. Secret executions are those carried out without the defendant’s family or lawyer being notified.

At the time of writing, his execution has 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. On 13 September 2023, IHRNGO reported a 94% rise in the number of drug-related executions in the year following the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in September 2022.

Read IHRNGO's report on drug-related executions for the occasion of World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2023: