Increased Criticism of Internet Disruption in Sistan and Baluchestan; 18 Baluch Executed in Five Days

The human rights website "Halosh" reports that at least 18 Baluch citizens, including two women, were executed in the country’s prisons this week within five days on charges such as murder. Halosh states that these individuals were executed between April 9 and April 14, 2023. In the latest execution, which took place in the early hours of Thursday, April 14, Noor Ahmad Nahtani Zarouzehi, a Baluch prisoner, was executed in Vakilabad prison in Mashhad on drug-related charges. The execution of Baluch citizens comes as several human rights groups and activists condemned the repeated internet outages in Sistan and Baluchestan, claiming that the Iranian government's aim with such actions in recent months is to "cover up human rights violations" in the province. In recent months, coinciding with nationwide protests in Iran, which continue on Fridays in Sistan and Baluchestan, numerous reports of internet outages and disruptions in the region have emerged. According to the website "Group Mian", 23 organizations and four human rights activists, along with the coalition "Keep It On", issued a statement regarding the situation in Sistan and Baluchestan stating: "For over three months, the people of Sistan and Baluchestan, especially in Zahedan, have faced internet outages every Friday coinciding with prayers and subsequent protests. This ongoing disruption has led to significant challenges for locals who heavily rely on online communications for their daily activities." The coalition "Keep It On" is a global network of over 300 human rights organizations from 105 countries working to end internet shutdowns. The statement references the "Bloody Friday" in Zahedan, where "at least 103 people were killed." It states: "In response to ongoing protests, the Iranian government has resorted to various measures to suppress them, including severe disruptions to mobile data in the province, especially in areas where protests are occurring." The statement calls on the International Telecommunication Union, of which Iran is a member, to pressure Iran to stop the internet outages. Shirin Ebadi, Fariba Baluch, and human rights groups including Halosh, PEN America, and Alliance for Iran have signed this statement. Additionally, a joint annual report by two human rights organizations on the situation in Iran indicates that at least 582 people were executed by the Iranian judicial system in 2022, a 75% increase from the previous year. According to the fifteenth joint annual report of the "Iran Human Rights Organization" and "Together Against the Death Penalty", the number of executions in 2022 was the highest in the past seven years. The report's authors state that the Iranian government uses the death penalty as a means to instill social fear to maintain power. Previously, Masoud Raeisi, a human rights activist, stated to the Persian section of Voice of America that the Iranian government executes Baluch individuals whenever it wants to exert pressure on society or send a message to the people, as executing Baluch citizens is low-cost for them. According to the report, at least 288 executions (49% of all executions) were for murder charges, the highest rate in the past 15 years. Additionally, at least 256 individuals (44%) were executed on drug-related charges. Among the executed were at least 15 people, including two protesters, on security charges (moharebeh and ifsad fil-arz), and at least 3 minors and 16 women were among the executed. The annual report by the "Iran Human Rights Organization" and "Together Against the Death Penalty" notes that in response to the international community's reactions, the Iranian government has intensified the execution of prisoners on non-political charges. It states that "at least 127 people were executed in November and December 2022," including 67 for drug-related crimes and 53 for murder. Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, director of the "Iran Human Rights Organization", commented on this report saying: "International reactions to the execution sentences of protesters have increased the political cost of continuing to execute protesters for the Iranian government. To create fear among the people, the government has increased the execution of those accused of non-political crimes. These are low-cost victims of the Iranian government's execution machine. To stop this machine, the international community and civil society inside and outside Iran must respond uniformly to every execution." The annual report states that more than half of the execution sentences have been carried out since the protests began. The joint report by these two human rights organizations indicates that the execution of ethnic minorities has also increased in 2022. According to collected data, 30% of all executed individuals were among Baluch prisoners, while Baluch people make up only 2 to 6% of Iran's population. The report states that in the past decade, the majority of prisoners executed on security charges have belonged to ethnic minorities such as Arabs, Baluch, and Kurds. The publication of this report comes as Amnesty International also referenced an increase in the issuance of execution sentences and the resumption of public executions in its annual report on Iran earlier this year.