Important: Click here to read this clarification about some of our previous statements regarding 'Moharabeh'.
Officials executed the Sunni prisoners on Saturday 26 October 2013, in 'retaliation' to the deaths of Iranian border guards who were killed in clashes in Saravan a day earlier, according to the Public Prosecutor, Mohammad Marzieh.
Reports say that the authorities buried eight of the men after the execution without informing the families. They were reportedly buried in a cemetery 5 kilometres from Zahedan, south-eastern Iran, robbing the families of the chance to pay their last respects, and preventing them from fulfilling Islamic burial rites.
Eight of the men were reportedly facing charges relating to membership of the Sunni armed group 'Jundullah'. According to Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran (HRDAI), who released the testimonies of torture made by some of the deceased prisoners, many of the men had been severely tortured whilst in detention.
To give just one example, HRDAI reported that the prisoner Habibullah Regi was given electric shocks, his nails were pulled, and he was beaten with cables in an effort to force him to confess. Many of the other prisoners faced similar treatment.
Officials executed the Sunni prisoners on Saturday 26 October 2013, in 'retaliation' to the deaths of Iranian border guards who were killed in clashes in Saravan a day earlier, according to the Public Prosecutor, Mohammad Marzieh.
Reports say that the authorities buried eight of the men after the execution without informing the families. They were reportedly buried in a cemetery 5 kilometres from Zahedan, south-eastern Iran, robbing the families of the chance to pay their last respects, and preventing them from fulfilling Islamic burial rites.
Eight of the men were reportedly facing charges relating to membership of the Sunni armed group 'Jundullah'. According to Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran (HRDAI), who released the testimonies of torture made by some of the deceased prisoners, many of the men had been severely tortured whilst in detention.
To give just one example, HRDAI reported that the prisoner Habibullah Regi was given electric shocks, his nails were pulled, and he was beaten with cables in an effort to force him to confess. Many of the other prisoners faced similar treatment.