Secret execution of five prisoners of conscience, including two Balochs and two Turkamens in Mashhad
Hengaw: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
The death sentences of five prisoners of conscience — two Balochs, two Turkamen, and one from Khorasan Razavi — were carried out in secret at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. They had been charged with Baghi (armed rebellion).
According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, at dawn on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, Abdulhakim Azim Gorgij and Abdulrahman Gorgij, both Baloch prisoners from Aqqala in Golestan Province; Taj Mohammad Khormali and Farhad Shakeri, both Turkamen from Gonbad-e Kavus; and Malek-Ali Fadaei-Nasab from Khorasan Razavi Province, were executed at Vakilabad (Mashhad Central) Priso
None of the prisoners were granted a final visit, and their families were informed only via brief phone calls after the executions had taken place.
Among the five, Malek-Ali Fadaei-Nasab was the only Shia defendant; the four others were followers of Sunni Islam.
Hengaw strongly condemns the execution of these five prisoners of conscience, asserting that they were sentenced to death through a completely opaque and unjust process. The organization calls on all international human rights bodies to adopt effective measures — including sanctions against the judges and the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran— to raise the cost of executions in Iran.
These five were part of a broader case involving twelve defendants, nine of whom—including Fadaei-Nasab, Hamid Rastbala, Farhad Shakeri, Kabir Sa’adat Jahani, Mohammad-Ali Arayesh, Isa Eid-Mohammadi, Abdulhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdulrahman Gorgij, and Taj Mohammad Khormali—were initially sentenced to death in 2019 by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad. They were charged with baghi (armed rebellion) for membership in the Salafi group “Hizb al-Furqan” and the “National Solidarity Front of Iranian Sunnis.”
All had been arrested in February 2016 by the Intelligence forces and were transferred about a year later to Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.
During his detention, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij was subjected to brutal torture, including being suspended from the ceiling for long periods and having pepper poured into his rectum.
Notably, the death sentences of Hamid Rastbala, Kabir Saadat-Jahani, and Mohammad-Ali Arayesh were carried out in January 2021.
Three other co-defendants — Mohammadreza Sheikh-Ahmadi, Abdolbaset Oorsan, and Morteza Fakouri — were each sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of baghi through membership in the Salafi and takfiri (Arabic: those who excommunicate) group ISIS.
Eventually, parts of the original ruling were overturned by Iran’s Supreme Court. However, in August 2023, Branch 4 of the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad, under Judge Ahmadian Salami, reissued death sentences for six of the defendants: Farhad Shakeri, Abdulhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdulrahman Gorgij, Taj Mohammad Khormali, Malek-Ali Fadaei-Nasab, and Isa Eid-Mohammadi
