Abdi, Ali
Ali Abdi (Abdi) has served as the Director-General of South Khorasan Province Prisons since July 2022. During Abdi’s tenure, numerous prisoners at Birjand Central Prison in South Khorasan Province have been executed for drug offenses other than those that would allow the death penalty. Consistent with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the death penalty may only be imposed for the most serious crimes and can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgment rendered by a competent court. Others have died due to lack of medical care. A disproportionately high number of those executed belong to Iran’s oppressed Baluch minority group. Reports from South Khorasan prisons indicate that prison officials have executed prisoners without proper due process of law, and without prior notification to the prisoners’ legal counsel or family. In one case, a Baluchi prisoner was executed by Birjand Central Prison officials despite a recommendation by Iran’s Revolutionary Court for the inmate’s case to be referred for commutation of the death penalty.
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