Iran hanged on Monday three men who were convicted of carrying out “terrorist activities” in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the judiciary said.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, the three Baluch men are Mohammad Barahouyi Anjomani, Mohammad Karim Barkazayi Akson and Edris Bilrani who were sentenced to death on charges of corruption and participating in terrorist acts.
They were also found guilty of being part of the Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) group, which was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” organization, according to Mizan.
The Army of Justice group says it is a “resistance movement” fighting for the ethnic rights of the Baluch.
The three men were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of bombing attacks targeting a police station and a patrol vehicle in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, in 2019.
Also, bomb-making tools were confiscated in one of the convicts’ houses during a search, AFP reported.
The chief justice of Sistan and Baluchestan province Ali Mostafavinia said the provincial amnesty committee opposed a proposal to pardon the three convicts.
In September, gunmen carried out an attack in the province killing two policemen.
On Monday, Iran's official IRNA news agency said a conscript was killed and two others injured in a confrontation with an armed group near the border with Pakistan.
Bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, the province of Sistan and Baluchestan is the scene of frequent clashes between police on the one hand, and drug traffickers and opposition Baluch groups on the other.
More than 600 people have been executed by Iran so far this year, already the highest figure in eight years, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group in a November report.
“The international community must react to more than 600 executions in 10 months — that's two state murders a day,” said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
The IHR's tally of 604 executions so far this year is already higher than the 582 recorded in 2022, and the most since 2015 when it registered 972 executions.
Activists have expressed dismay over the surge in drug-related executions after previously falling due to amendments in Iran's criminal code.
