Iran: Four young Baluchi men at risk of execution

Write to the Head of Judiciary, urging him to:

• Quash the convictions and death sentences and drop all charges against Shoeib Mir Baluchzehi Rigi, Nezamoddin Hout, Kambiz Kharout, Ebrahim Narouie, Mansour Dahmardeh and Mansour Hout related to their peaceful participation in protests.
• Ensure that if charged with a recognizable criminal offence, retrial proceedings must meet international fair trial standards without recourse to the death penalty and exclude coerced “confessions”.
• Provide the men access to their families and lawyers of their own choosing, as well as to adequate medical care.
• Ensure that they are protected from further torture and other ill-treatment and that torture allegations are investigated, and anyone found responsible is brought to justice in fair trials.
• Grant independent observers access to capital trials connected to protests and immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view of abolishing the death penalty.

Write to:

Head of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

c/o Embassy of Iran to the European Union

Avenue Franklin Roosevelt No. 15, 1050 Bruxelles,

Belgium

Email: secretariat@iranembassy.be

Salutation: Dear Mr Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei,

***If you use Twitter, we suggest targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader (@khamenei_ir) You can use the tweets below or model your message along these lines:

Baluchi men Ebrahim Narouie, Kambiz Kharout, Mansour Dahmardeh & Shoeib Mir Baluchzehi Rigi are at risk of execution after being sentenced to death in sham trials in relation to protests. Mansour Hout & Nezamoddin Hout are facing retrials on capital charges [insert UA link]

Baluchi men at risk of execution & death sentences related to protests were tortured through electric shocks, sexual violence & beatings. @khamenei_ir must quash their convictions/sentences & drop charges related to peaceful participation in protests NOW!

Background

Plainclothes agents arrested Ebrahim Narouie in Zahedan on October 3, 2022. The authorities refused to provide his family with any information about his fate and whereabouts for several weeks, despite their repeated requests, thereby subjecting him to enforced disappearance. He first called his family some three weeks after his arrest and told them he had been moved from an unknown location to Zahedan prison. While forcibly disappeared, his interrogators accused him of being a “leader” in the protests and of involvement in setting a bank on fire.

According to informed sources, interrogators subjected him to torture and other ill-treatment, including through sticking needles into his genitals, to compel him to make forced “confessions” accepting their accusations by signing and fingerprinting pre-written documents and reading pre-written statements in front of a video camera. Following a grossly unfair trial before Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Zahedan in which he was denied the right to legal representation and to even defend himself in court, he was convicted of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) and sentenced to death. He was informed of his sentence on 30 December 2022.

Torture and ill-treatment

Revolutionary Guards agents arrested Mansour Dahmardeh in Zahedan on September 30, 2022, several hours after he attended Friday prayers in the Great Mosalla of Zahedan, a large prayer site near the city’s main mosque. He had taeken part in a protest outside a nearby police station that was violently quashed by security forces. According to informed sources, while held in a Revolutionary Guards detention center in circumstances amounting to enforced disappearance, he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment including sexual violence and beatings, resulting in him sustaining a broken nose and teeth and being hospitalized for several days.

Based on information provided to Amnesty International by informed sources, it appears that he may have received two death sentences – one by a Revolutionary Court for “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and another by a criminal court for “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz), both based entirely on his torture-tainted “confessions” of having thrown three stones and set fire to a vehicle tire during the protests. Amnesty International learned that he attempted suicide twice in prison using a fork, raising concerns about his mental health and further risks of self-harm.

Unfair trials

Ministry of Intelligence agents arrested Shoeib Mir Baluchzehi Rigi in Zahedan on October 5, 2022 and took him to an unknown location. According to informed sources, while forcibly disappeared for eight days, interrogators subjected him to torture and other ill-treatment, including through beatings, electric shocks to his feet, hitting his chest with the back of a gun, and twisting his wrists until they felt like they were breaking. His first contact with his family was eight days after arrest when he was allowed to briefly call them. He was transferred to Zahedan prison 14 days after arrest.

An informed source told Amnesty International that a witness saw bruises on his face and body several weeks after arrest. His trial, which was grossly unfair, took place in December 2022 before a court in Zahedan. On December 19, 2022, the court convicted him of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) and sentenced him to death. On December 24, 2022, agents forced him to stand in the cold in front of a cooler to punish him for news about his death sentence and torture being shared online.

Charges denied

Security forces arrested Kambiz Kharout in Zahedan on October 1, 2022. He was released on bail three weeks later but rearrested on November 12, 2022. According to Baluchi human rights activists, he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention and denied the charges against him. Following a grossly unfair trial before Criminal Court 2 in Zahedan in which he was not allowed legal representation, on January 3, 2023, authorities informed him that he had been convicted of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) and “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and sentenced him to death.

Capital charges

Revolutionary Guards agents arrested Mansour Hout and Nezamoddin Hout on September 30, 2022 in Chabahar in connection with protests that day. Amnesty International learned that interrogators subjected both men to torture and other ill-treatment to force them to “confess” to involvement in acts of arson of public buildings during the protests. Informed sources have told the organization that Mansour Hout had not taken part in the protests.

They were denied access to legal representation until about a month before their trial took place in December 2022. According to informed sources, around January 2023, Criminal Court 2 in Zahedan convicted them of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) and “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and sentenced them to death. In February, Iran’s Supreme Court quashed their conviction and sentence on procedural grounds and sent their case to a Revolutionary Court for retrial on capital charges.