Authorities in Iran executed a 31-year-old Iranian Baluch political prisoner on Saturday in Zahedan central prison.
The execution of Javid Dehghan Khold was the eighth in just one week, suggesting that Iran’s human rights situation is deteriorating fast.
Dehghan Khold was arrested in 2015 and tortured into confessing to the charges lodged against him, including the pulling out of fingernails and being flogged with a cable.
Many human rights activists and groups urged the Iranian regime to spare his life.
“[Iran should] immediately halt the execution of Javid Dehghan, a member of Iran’s disadvantaged Baluchi ethnic minority… Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” Amnesty International wrote on Thursday, January 28.
Prior to Dehghan Khald’s execution, the Iranian government executed seven more people, including:
- Iranian-Arab prisoner Ali Motayeri was executed in Sheiban Prison, Ahvaz, on Thursday, for the internationally vague crimes of waging war against God and corruption on earth. He was also tortured into confessing.
- Iranian wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini was executed on Monday, despite an international campaign to save his life, who was the second wrestler to be killed since September. The first being national hero Navid Afkari sentenced for taking part in the 2018 Iran protests.
Iran is continuing to execute more people, having killed almost 40 in the last few months, mainly in an attempt to intimidate the public with the goal of preventing further protests against the Iranian establishment.
“We strongly condemn the series of executions—at least 28—since mid-December, including of people from minority groups. We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law,” the United Nations Human Rights Office stated.
The fact that the international community has not responded to these executions, including that of French resident Ruhollah Zam, in any real way—in fact, just postponing a business forum with Iran—means that Tehran feels emboldened to continue.
The international community must do whatever is in their power to end human rights abuses in Iran, perhaps even through the use of the European Union’s new global sanctions regime.
“This regime cannot last even for a day without torture and execution… This regime is a disgrace to contemporary humanity and must be isolated by the international community,” said Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
