Iran Hangs 12 Baluchi Prisoners In One Day: Report
Paris: Iran has carried out a mass execution of 12 inmates at a prison in its southeast, an NGO said on Tuesday, as concern grows over the rising number of executions in the Islamic republic. The 11 men and one woman -- convicted either on drugs-related or murder charges -- were hanged on Monday morning in the main prison of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan province close to the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said. They were all members of the Baluch ethnic minority who mainly adhere to the Sunni strain of Islam rather than the Shiism that is dominant in Iran, it added. Of the 12, six were sentenced to death for drug-related charges and six were sentenced for murder. None of the executions had been reported by domestic media or confirmed by officials in Iran, it said. The woman executed -- identified only by her surname Gargij -- was sentenced for the murder of her husband and arrested in 2019, it said. Activists have long expressed...