WARNING: This story contains sensitive and disturbing content. Discretion is advised.
A heartbreaking video of a young Iranian girl begging the authorities in Salma prison in the northwest Iran sparing her father’s life a day before his execution has gone viral amid a surge in executions in the country.
Her father, Abdullah Khan-Mohammadi, was hanged despite his daughter’s tearful pleas.
WARNING: This video contains sensitive content:
The founder of the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said that in the month of May alone, at least 59 people have been executed in Iran and since the beginning of this year at least 223 people.
“You won’t find these numbers anywhere else,” he said.
Amiry-Moghaddam said the regime’s “killing machine is accelerating”.
Many of the death sentences, he said, are based on false drug-related charges and blasphemy.
“There is no fair process and no fair trials,” he said.
His concern is that the Islamic Republic is ramping up charges to carry out the death penalty as the regime tests international reaction. The reaction has been largely limited to international condemnation and expressions of outrage, which Amiry-Moghaddam said gives the Islamic Republic a green light to continue its execution spree.
Most recently, the regime executed two men, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare, for insulting the Prophet and blasphemy charges.
“It is basically that they found something on their mobile phones with content that insulted the religion and the Prophet and for that they were hanged,” Amiry-Moghaddam added.
“A Swedish-Iranian citizen who was abducted in Turkey was forcibly moved to Iran and tortured to make confessions. He was executed.”
The victims, he said, are largely from the marginalized sections of society and ethnic and religious minorities such as the Baloch people, – an ethnic group native to the Balochistan region of western and southern Asia. They belong to Iran’s poorest region and are systemically criminalized with disproportionately higher execution rates, especially during times of political unrest.
Officials say the Baloch people in Iran are being persecuted at a higher rate even though they make up the smallest number of residents.
Naela Quadri Baloch
Professor Naela Quadri Baloch, a Baloch woman, politician and activist, lives in exile in Port Coquitlam.
“It’s heartbreaking. We can’t sleep. We can’t live in peace. All Baloch around the world,” Quadri Baloch told Global News.
In Iran last year, a third of all executions were of Baloch people, but they make up less than five percent of Iran’s population, according to Iran Human Rights.
The Baloch people make up less than five percent of Iran’s population, according to Iran Human Rights.
Iran human rights
“We are facing genocide,” said Quadri Baloch. “They are killing Baloch in cold blood in the name of enemies of God.”
As Sunni Muslims, the Baloch people are both an ethnic and religious minority. Iran’s constitution declares Shia Islam as the country’s official state religion with the state apparatus discriminating against religious minorities.
According to Iran Human Rights, the purpose of the increase in executions is to instill fear in society to prevent more anti-regime protests. Since Mahsa Jina Amini’s custodial death, the people of Balochistan have been at the forefront of insurgencies that threaten to topple the regime.
“They have no mercy on anyone,” said Quadri Baloch, “it’s not just Baloch but Baloch are in the forefront because Baloch or not sit down.”
She is outraged by the lack of action from the global community. She said she is dismayed that the United Nations recently named Iran to the Human Rights Council Social Forum.
“They kill, they hang, they rape and they are champions of human rights at the UN?” asked Quadri Baloch.
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