Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Sa'id Baluchi

About

Age: 45
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Sunni)
Civil Status: Married

Case

Date of Killing: March 7, 2015
Location of Killing: Chabahar, Sistan Va Baluchestan Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Hanging
Charges: Drug trafficking

About this Case

  Mr. Baluchi lived with his family in the underprivileged Koldar Village in Hormozgan Province.

News of the execution of Mr. Sa’id Baluchi was published on the website of the Baloch Activists Campaign on March 7, 2015. Additional information was taken from an interview by Abdorrahman Bouroumand Ceter on October 16, 2015 (ABC interview) with a person close to him and the website of Baloch Activists Campaign on March 9, 2015.

Mr. Baluchi, 49, was married and father of five children. He was Sunni and lived with his family in the Koldar Village, extremely deprived village near Nikshahr.. He had an elementary education. He earned his living by transporting goods in the area. Since the residents of the village had no means to go to the city to provide for their daily needs, Mr. Baluchi’s job was to purchase their needed supplies and bring them back to the village. (ABC interview) 

According to the person interviewed by ABC, Mr. Baluch was a religious person. When Sunni missionaries went to his Village, they stayed at Mr. Baluchi’s and his father’s house. 

Arrest and detention

Mr. Baluchi was arrested by agents of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in his village on September 28, 2012. According to the interviewee, agents had a warrant to arrest a resident of the Koldar Village who had smuggled a truck of narcotics eight months earlier and had escaped arrest. After several summons and unable to find the escapee, agents arrested Mr. Baluchi and transferred him to solitary confinement by the Police investigation unit in Nikshahr without offering any reason or having a warrant. (ABC interview)

According to the interviewee, efforts by Mr. Baluchi’s family to find out his whereabouts were fruitless. He was transferred to the Chahbahar Prison after five days. According to the existing information, during this period, he was tortured to such an extent that he could not stand or walk and could not recognize his children after his transfer to Chahbahar Prison. Marks of torture were evident on his body. He only felt better after 3 to 4 months medical treatment. (ABC interview)

During his monthly visitations at the Chahbahar Prison, he told his family that he was tortured in solitary confinement to confess that all the narcotics seized in the past eight months belonged to him. According to the interviewee, he was given electrical shocks and had lost consciousness under torture. Marks of holes on the back of his feet, according to him, were torture marks from a drill and nails. (ABC interview)

Trial

The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Nikshahr tried Mr. Baluchi in 2 closed sessions on December 2nd and 6th, 2012. According to the interviewee, in addition to the judge and the Public Prosecutor of Nikshahr, Mr. Naser Kiani Afzali, the public defender, and one of Mr. Baluchi’s sons were present. According to the existing information, the trial session took only 20 minutes. (ABC interview)

Charges

The charge brought against Mr. Baluchi was announced as “transporting narcotics.” He was accused of being the driver of a vehicle containing smuggled narcotics on the road to Nikshahr, which was discovered eight months before his arrest.

The validity of the criminal charges brought against this defendant cannot be ascertained in the absence of the basic guarantees of a fair trial.  International human rights organizations have drawn attention to reports indicating that Islamic Republic authorities have brought trumped-up charges against their political opponents and executed them for alleged drug trafficking, sexual, and other criminal offences. Thousands of alleged drug traffickers have been sentenced to death following judicial processes that fail to meet international standards. Scores of them were executed based on a 1989 law imposing mandatory death sentences on drug traffickers found in possession of specified amounts of proscribed narcotics (5 kg of hashish or opium, and more than 30 grams of heroin, codeine or methadone). The exact number of people convicted based on trumped-up charges is unknown.

Evidence of guilt

According to the interviewee, the evidence presented against Mr. Baluchi was “the vehicle and discovered goods,” “papers with his fingerprints,” and “testimonies by 31 agents of the Anti-narcotic Force indicating that Mr. Baluchi had been arrested while driving the vehicle containing narcotics, was armed with a Kalashnikov, and had a confrontation with agents.” (ABC interview)

Defense

According to the existing information, Mr. Baluchi was denied the opportunity to defend himself. He could not hire an attorney due to poverty and, according to the interviewee, his public defender did not defend him during the trial and just told him to tell the judge whether the goods were his or not. Mr. Baluchi denied the charges and swore that they were trumped-up. According to people close to him, when tortured in solitary confinement, agents forced Mr. Baluchi to put his fingerprint on papers the content of which he didn’t know.  (ABC interview)

According to the interviewee, Mr. Baluchi was arrested in relation to the case of a truck containing narcotics discovered eight months before his arrest. The truck driver, also a resident of the Koldar Village, had been identified and was on the run. Several subpoenas had been issued and sent to the village for the escapee.  Unable to find the escapee, the agents who had gone to the village with a warrant for the escapee  arrested Mr. Baluchi without a warrant or offering any reason.  (ABC interview)

During the trial, several community leaders and elders of the area swore that Mr. Baluchi was innocent and that the discovered goods did not belong to him. Their testimony was included in the file; however, the public defender told Mr. Baluchi’s family later that the testimonies had been removed from the case and were not presented to the court. (ABC interview)

The Supreme Court rejected the ruling by the preliminary court and sent the case back for retrial due to lack of any report regarding the presence of a Kalashnikov. Nevertheless, there was no retrial and the Supreme Court’s objection was nullified. The authorities included in the case file the testimonies of 31 agents of the Anti-Narcotic Force indicating that Mr. Baluchi had resisted arrest and carried a weapon, and the previous ruling was reinstated.  (ABC interview)  

Judgment

The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Nikshahr condemned Mr. Baluchi to death for transporting narcotics on December 9, 2012. The Supreme Court did not confirm the ruling due to incompleteness of the case and returned it to the preliminary court. However, the Supreme Court finally confirmed the ruling in 2013. (ABC interview)

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