UN experts 'shocked' by execution of Javid Dehghan Khaled
UN experts on Thursday, February 6, condemned the execution of Baloch prisoner Jawed Dehghan Khald in Iran, saying they were "shocked" by the news.
At the same time, Amnesty International reported that 19 Baloch citizens have been executed in Iran since December 19, 2020.
The organization's experts say they are "shocked" by the execution of Mr. Dehghan Khald, despite their call last week for an immediate halt to his execution.
The Media Center of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran confirmed on Saturday, February 1, that Mr. Dehghan Khald's death sentence was carried out that day.
According to the UN website, the international body's human rights experts had previously conveyed their "deep" concerns about "serious violations" of Mr. Dehghan's trial process to Iranian authorities, including forced confessions under torture, his prolonged detention in solitary confinement, and the failure to review the death sentence in the appeals court, but Iran has ignored this request.
The report called the executions in Iran the result of torture and forced confessions from the defendants, and expressed concern about other recent executions of Baloch citizens.
According to Iranian judicial authorities, Mr. Dehghan's charges were related to the case of Abdolhamid Mirbaluchzai, who was executed on January 26.
The Iranian judiciary had previously announced that Abdulhamid Mirbaluchzai had killed two Revolutionary Guards officers during a shooting on April 10, 2015, on Mount Birak near the city of Khesh in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Javid Dehghan Khald was sentenced to death in May 2017 by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Zahedan on charges of "moharebeh".
This is despite Amnesty International saying in a statement that during his solitary confinement, IRGC officers repeatedly tortured Mr. Dehghan Khald to make him "confess" to his membership in the "Army of Justice" group and to the fatal shooting of two IRGC officers during an attack on April 10, 2015.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International announced on Thursday, February 6, that 19 Baloch citizens and one Arab have been executed in Iran since December 19.
The report says that since December 1 last year (about two months and four days), at least 49 people have been executed in Iran, one-third of whom are Baloch citizens.
Source: Radio Farda
