Iran Executes Two Baluch Inmates Without Family Notification

Prison authorities of the Islamic Republic have executed two Baluch inmates without informing their families.

According to a report from the Haalvsh website, the death sentences of the prisoners on drug-related charges were carried out in the early hours of Wednesday at Kahnoj prison.

The report identifies the prisoners as 36-year-old Abdullah Azbakzehi from Zahedan and 37-year-old Khalilullah Barahoei from Khash city.

Sources indicate that Azbakzahi was arrested in 2021 on drug-related charges and was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court.

Barahoei was arrested in 2019 on similar charges and was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Kahnoj. 

They were both transferred from the general ward of Kahnuj prison to solitary confinement, where their death sentences were executed at dawn without the knowledge of their families.

According to a report by Amnesty International, Iran has reached its highest level of death sentence executions in the last eight years, with the judiciary of the Islamic Republic executing 853 people in 2023 alone.

The report indicates that 481 executions, more than half of the total, were related to drug crimes. This marks an 89 per cent rise in death penalties for drug-related offenses compared to 2022 when 255 people were executed.

The latest numbers also show a staggering 264 per cent increase compared to 2021, when 132 individuals faced execution on similar charges.