Human Rights Iran report-en West Baluchistan

4 Baluch Men Executed for Drug Charges in Zahedan

December 16, 2024

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 15, 2024: Mohammad Vazir Roudini, Yaghoub Barahouyi Moghaddam, Elias Tardast (Shahuzehi) and Alireza Galebacheh, four Baluch men on death row for drug-related offences in separate cases, were executed in Zahedan Central Prison.

According to Haal Vsh, four Baluch men were executed in Zahedan Central Prison on 15 December. Their identities have been reported as 45-year-old Mohammad Vazir Roudini, Yaghoub Braahouyi Moghaddam, 22-year-old Elias Tardast (Shahuzehi) and 37-year-old Alireza Galebacheh. They were all sentenced to to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Mohammad Vazir Roudini and Yaghoub were arrested in 2023, Elias and Alireza were arrested in 2020.

At the time of writing, their executions have not 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. In the first six months of 2024, at least 147 people were executed for the charges.

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.”