7 Men Including 2 Afghans and 5 Baluch Hanged in Zahedan

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, seven men were executed in Zahedan Central Prison on 1st March. Of those, five were sentenced to death for drug-related charges. Their identities have been established as Farhad Dahmardeh, a 46-year-old Baluch father of four from Khajeh Masak, arrested for carrying opium and shisheh (methamphetamine) four years ago; Mousa Pahang, a 43-year-old Baluch father of two on death row for five years; Ghasem Ghanbardezaki, a 39-year-old Baluch father of one arrested four years ago; 28-year-old Sadollah Zarei and 30-year-old Asem Charikar, two Afghan men arrested in the same case two years ago.

The other two men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. Their identities have been established as 40-year-old Morad Saberu (Badpa) and 31-year-old Basir Roudini, both Baluch minorities.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Morad Saberu was single and worked in farming. He was arrested for participating in a tribal fight three years ago. Basir Roudini was from Zahedan and arrested around 3 years ago for the murder of three family members.

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 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 503 people were executed for drug-related charges, of which only under 3% were announced by official sources. 17% of all drug-related executions in 2024 were Baluch minorities while they represent 2-6% of Iran’s population.

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.