Iranians sentenced to death, 12 others jailed for drug smuggling

From L-R: The first four were sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, the last to death.

An Iranian man was sentenced to death on Saturday, and 12 others, including a Pakistani national, were sentenced to 25 years in prison each after being convicted of smuggling drugs from Iran to Yemen.

The prosecutor, Kais Hemyar, demanded the death sentence for the other 12 convicts saying the 25 years in prison was not enough. 

“We demand the death sentence for the other 12 convicts, because the punishment they received does not fit the crimes they committed,” said the prosecutor.

The convicted men asked for an appeal through their translator. No lawyers or representatives from the Iranian or Pakistani embassies attended the final hearing.   

Chaired by Judge Muhsen Alwan, the Special State Security Court handed the death sentence to Ayoob Mohammed Hood, 33.

The 25-year jail sentence was handed to the following defendants: Shakeeb Mohammed Baksh, 27, Ottoman Mohammed Haidar, 32, Abu Bakr Mohammed Eysa, 20, Irahim Adha Saeedi, 28, Ali Murad Baloshi, 35, Abdul Rahim Azeez Allah Khawan, 42, Mohammed Murad Wahed Baksh, 52, Saleem Markan Gholam Nabi, 34, Radhi Yousef Abdul Malek Hood, 20, Khaled Jan Nazar Mohammed, 25, Mousa Baksh Hassan 25,  and  Abdul Wahid Murad Baksh, 19.

On October 12, 2008, the Court held its first hearing to try the 13 men. The prosecutor accused them of bringing a large quantity of Hashish from the Iranian port of Kanar on a boat called the “Al Haseeb” into Yemeni territorial waters. 

The 13 men were arrested March of this year by American naval forces who handed them to Yemeni authorities. The American forces said they found three tons of drugs on the Iranian-flagged Al Haseeb boat, and they destroyed all but 20 kilograms as a sample. 

In previous hearings, the defendants denied the charges saying they were fishermen, and they had nothing to do with the drugs found on their boat, accusing the Americans of planting the hashish.

“The American forces that held us and blind folded us might have put the drugs on our boat,” one of them said in a previous hearing.

Meanwhile, about 7 tons of drugs were seized by the Yemeni Coast Guard in cooperation with international forces on Socotra Island in the far east of Yemen late last week, said sources at the Ministry of Interior on Friday. 

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