UN Experts ‘Shocked’ by Execution of Javid Dehghan-Khald
UN experts on Thursday, February 5th condemned the execution of Javid Dehghan-Khald, a Baloch prisoner in Iran, and said they were “shocked” by the news.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International reported that since December 20, 2020, 19 Baloch citizens have been executed in Iran.
UN experts say that despite their request last week for an immediate halt to the execution of Mr. Dehghan-Khald, they were “shocked” by the implementation of this sentence.
The Media Center of Iran’s Judiciary confirmed on Saturday, February 1st that the death sentence of Mr. Dehghan-Khald was carried out on that day.
According to the UN website, human rights experts of this international body had previously conveyed their “deep” concerns to Iranian authorities about “serious violations” in Mr. Dehghan’s trial process, including forced confessions under torture, his prolonged detention in solitary confinement, and the failure to review his death sentence in an appellate court, but Iran did not heed this request.
The report named executions in Iran as a result of torture and forced confessions of the accused and announced the international body’s concern about other recent cases of Baloch citizens’ executions.
According to Iranian judicial authorities, the charges against Mr. Dehghan were related to the case of Abdolhamid Mir Baloch-Zahy, who was executed on December 27th of last year.
Iran’s Judiciary had previously announced that Abdolhamid Mir-Baloch-Zahy, during a shooting incident on April 9, 2015 in Birk Mountain near Khash city in Sistan and Baluchestan province, caused the death of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members.
Javid Dehghan-Khald was sentenced to death in May 2017 on charges of “moharebeh” (waging war against God) by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Zahedan.
This comes as Amnesty International stated in a statement that during solitary confinement, Revolutionary Guard members repeatedly tortured Mr. Dehghan-Khald to “confess” to membership in the “Jaish al-Adl” group as well as the fatal shooting of two Revolutionary Guard members during an attack on April 9, 2015.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International announced on Thursday, February 5th that since December 20th, 19 Baloch citizens and one Arab have been executed in Iran.
The report states that since the beginning of December last year to now (approximately two months and four days), at least 49 people have been executed in Iran, one-third of whom are Baloch citizens.
Source: Radio Farda
