Payam Javan: Local activists claim that Iran, which Amnesty International recently criticised for turning its prisons into “killing fields,” has executed at least eight people in a span of three days.

On August 21, the Baluch Activists Campaign reported that four executions at the Zahedan prison, all of which were connected to drug-related offences. The victims were identified as Abdulsamad Khadem, 29, of Zahak, Yaqub Ejbari, a father of eight from Qarqaruk Village, Mohammad Anwar Barahui, and a person with the last name Qanbarzehi, both of whom were from Zahedan, a city in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan’s southeast.

Additionally, on August 19, two Baluch inmates called Abdulsamad Shahuzehi and Mahmud Rigi were executed in the Zahedan prison after receiving qisas (retribution) sentences for a 2012 joint homicide. According to the advocacy group, 84 Baluch prisoners, including four women, have been executed since April.

Separate reports from various media outlets also confirmed the August 19 execution of an unidentified person on drug-related charges in a prison in the city of Dezful in southwest Iran, while the Human Rights News Agency reported an execution on the same day at the Sheiban prison. Before being put to death, Abdulreza Qalavand had spent ten years in prison.

According to Amnesty International, Iran’s government executes more people than any other nation outside of China and has criticised the scenario for turning the nation’s prisons into “killing fields.”

According to the Iran Human Rights organisation located in Norway, 61 people were executed in July alone, including three Afghans and 11 Baluchis. There have been 423 confirmed executions in Iran since the beginning of 2023, while insiders think the real number may be much higher.