3 Baluch Men Secretly Executed in Ghaen

According to Haalvsh, three Baluch men were secretly executed in Ghaen Prison in South Khorasan province on 28 April. Their identities have been reported as 27-year-old Mohsen Karami (photo), a man only identified as Mr Barahouyi and a third unidentified man from Zahedan who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source was quoted: “Mohsen was arrested for drug charges in Ghaen around five years ago and sentenced to death by the Ghaen Revolutionary Court. He was transferred for execution with two other Baluch men. They were executed without their families being notified.”

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 471 people were executed for drug-related charges, an 84% increase compared to 2022 (256) and about 18 times the average of drug-related executions in 2018-2020. Baluch minorities who constitute 2-6% of Iran’s population, made up 30% of drug executions in 2023.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.”