Baluch prisoner Abdollah Narouei executed in Vakilabad prison

Abdollah Narouei, a Baluch prisoner of about 43, was executed at dawn on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, in Mashhad's Vakilabad prison. Identified in some reports also as Hashem Shavabzehi, he was from Zahedan and lived in Mashhad, and was hanged without being given the chance of a final visit with his family.

According to the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), the prisoner, who was married and a father of five, had been sentenced to death by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court in December 2025–January 2026 on a drug-related charge. On Monday, 19 October, a day before the sentence was carried out, he was transferred to the quarantine ward of Vakilabad prison. As of the publication of this report, the prison authorities and the Islamic Republic's judiciary have not announced the execution.

Arrested in a night raid on his home

Abdollah Narouei was arrested on 3 November 2023 in a raid by security forces on his home in Mashhad, and spent nearly three years in prison. Baluch human rights activists have repeatedly said that Baluch compatriots, relative to their share of the population, account for the largest proportion of those executed in Iran; most of them are executed on drug charges after trials without an independent lawyer.

A wave of executions in Iran's prisons

This execution comes in the midst of a new wave of death sentences being carried out. In recent days, Ali Farhadi in Tabriz Central Prison and Hamid Mohammadi in Bandar Abbas prison were also executed, and Iran Human Rights has reported the transfer of more than 200 prisoners from Ghezel Hesar prison to be executed.

According to HRANA's annual report, the Islamic Republic executed at least 2,488 people in the Iranian year 1404 (March 2025–March 2026), including 63 women and two people who were under 18 at the time of the offence. Thirteen of these executions were carried out in public.

The Islamic Republic executed Abdollah Narouei, a father of five, in Mashhad's Vakilabad prison without a final family visit and without any official announcement.