Young Baluchi men at risk of execution

Four young Baluchi men are at grave risk of execution in connection with protests in Sistan and Baluchestan provinces.

Four young Baluchi men – Ebrahim Narouie, Kambiz Kharout, Mansour Dahmardeh
and Shoeib Mirbaluchzehi Rigi – are at grave risk of execution in connection with
protests in Sistan and Baluchestan provinces.

The men were sentenced to death based on torture-tainted “confessions” in grossly unfair trials. Two other Baluchi men – Mansour Hout and Nezamoddin Hout – are facing retrials on capital charges also in connection with protests.

Amnesty International issued a call for urgent action. "The men’s trials were grossly unfair, " said Amnesty International, adding: "The authorities denied them access to legal representation and torture-tainted “confessions” were used as evidence to convict them. In February 2023, Iran’s Supreme Court quashed the convictions and death sentences of Nezamoddin Hout and Mansour Hout on appeal on the grounds that Criminal Court 2 does not have jurisdiction over capital crimes and crimes related to national security. Their cases were sent for retrial before a Revolutionary Court, where it is feared they may be sentenced to death again. The appeals of the other four men remain pending before the Supreme Court."

The men were arrested separately between 30 September and 5 October 2022 amid a wave of mass arrests that took place in Sistan and Baluchestan provinces during and in the aftermath of the deadliest day of the popular uprising in Iran, on 30 September 2022, when security forces unlawfully killed scores of protesters and bystanders in Zahedan. According to informed sources, interrogators subjected the men to torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence, to compel them to make forced “confessions”.

For instance, interrogators beat Mansour Dahmardeh so severely that they broke his teeth and nose and stuck needles into Ebrahim Narouie’s genitals.