Four Baluch Prisoners Executed in Iran on Drug Charges

Four Baluch prisoners were executed on April 30 at Birjand Central Prison in South Khorasan Province of Iran.

The prisoners have been identified as Mehdi Eshterak, Mohammad Shah Bakhsh, and Mahmoud Gorgij, all from Zahedan.

A fourth individual, a woman, remains unidentified.

Human rights group Hengaw reported that all four had earlier been sentenced to death for drug-related offenses. 

The Baluch Activists Campaign confirmed that the Iranian judicial system handed down these sentences.

According to a report by Amnesty International, Iran has reached its highest level of death sentence execution in the last eight years, with the judiciary of the Islamic Republic executing 853 people in 2023 alone.

The report indicates that 481 executions, more than half of the total, were related to drug crimes. 

This marks an 89 percent rise in death penalties compared to 2022 when 255 people were executed for drug-related offenses. 

The latest numbers also show a staggering 264 percent increase compared to 2021, when 132 individuals faced execution on similar charges.