Three Years After Bloody Friday, Iran Shields Commanders Behind the Massacre of Over 100 Protesters

“We Killed Them; Take Your Blood Money”

Low-Level Officers Receive Light Sentences, Senior Officials Walk Free; Families of Victims Coerced into Silence and Denied Justice

September 30, 2025 —Three years after Islamic Republic security forces shot dead over 100 protesters, worshippers, and bystanders in the city of Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, the trial of the state perpetrators of that violence has concluded with verdicts that glaringly expose the crisis of impunity for state crimes and atrocities in the Islamic Republic.

Key Points:

• Lower-level officers were given light prison sentences that pale next to the death sentences and draconian prison sentences handed out to protesters and activists;
• Senior officials who ordered the massacre completely escaped any accountability;
• Given past history, it is unlikely that even these relatively mild sentences will be served;
• Financial compensation was granted to only a few families, who were pressured into signing documents waiving their right to seek justice for the killings;
• The court’s verdict, marked by secrecy, has been accompanied by ongoing harassment and threats against the families of the victims of the massacre;
• The trial itself was marred by the arrest of independent lawyers, the silencing of plaintiffs, the exclusion of critical evidence and eyewitness testimonies, the denial of representation, and the intimidation of victims’ families.

“Yet another state massacre of protesting civilians has gone effectively unpunished in Iran, paving the way for more to follow,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“This ‘Bloody Friday’ ruling reflects the Iranian authorities’ clear approval of gunning down and killing as many civilians as needed in order to crush protest, and the complete impossibility of any accountability or justice in the Islamic Republic,” Ghaemi said.

“Severe and coordinated international consequences—both diplomatic and economic, as well as the prosecution of responsible officials in third country courts under universal jurisdiction—are the only way to stop more massacres from happening in Iran,” he added.

The Massacre

On September 30, 2022, state security forces opened fire indiscriminately on protesters from Iran’s Sunni Baluch minority in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, who had gathered following Friday prayers to demand justice for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old Baluchi girl by the police chief of Chabahar and the recent killing in state custody of Mahsa Jina Amini, which had sparked the mass Woman, Life, Freedom protests that were erupting across the country.

At least 107 protesters, worshippers, and bystanders were killed by the security forces, including 17 children, and over 350 others were grievously wounded during the Zahedan massacre, known as Bloody Friday. It was one of the deadliest single-day massacres of protesters in Iran. Evidence compiled by Amnesty International showed that most were killed by shots to the head, neck, and torso, indicating intent to kill.

It is likely that many more civilians were actually killed that day, given that many families buried their dead in secret in order to avoid further reprisals by the authorities.

The massacre reflected the Iranian authorities’ determination to crush the Woman, Life, Freedom protests that were spreading across the country in the wake of Amini’s death, as well as the Islamic Republic’s long-standing, extreme violence against ethnic minority communities in Iran.

The brutality and lawlessness of the state’s actions in Zahedan were exceptional even by the Islamic Republic’s standards. After interviewing scores of eyewitnesses shortly after the massacre, the New York Times wrote:

“Some of the wounded tried to crawl away to escape the gunfire. Others bled to death on prayer mats as people tried to drag them to safety. But the snipers and officers kept pulling their triggers, firing bullet after bullet into men and young boys at a worship area where Friday Prayer had been underway.”

A Show Trial for Perpetrators Void of Justice and Accountability 

Days ahead of the third anniversary of the massacre, on September 21, 2025, Ali Movahedi-Rad, head of the judiciary in Sistan and Baluchistan province, announced that the trial for the perpetrators of the Bloody Friday massacre had been concluded and “the defendants were sentenced to the maximum legal punishment, which is 10 years in prison.” 

He stated the victims had been officially recognized as “martyrs” and that blood money (diyah) had been paid to their families. However, sources close to the families told CHRI that financial compensation has been granted only to a few families who were pressured into signing documents waiving their right to seek justice.

In January 2025, the state dropped the charge of premeditated murder against the officers and other defendants, sparing them from the death penalty, and instead handed down 10-year sentences with blood money payments to the victims. 

The sentences for the perpetrators of the massacre in Zahedan starkly reveal the security forces’ capture of Iran’s judiciary. Despite being directly responsible for the deaths of over 100 people, including children, the perpetrators received just 10 years in prison and partial blood money payments to the victims’ families. Those in command, meanwhile, received no punishment whatsoever.

By contrast, protesters, activists, journalists, and other civilians arrested during the same period—even for nonviolent dissent—were routinely issued decades-long sentences, or execution, all after trials devoid of due process and in which convictions were typically based on false confessions extracted under torture. 

Saeid Dehghan, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and director of the Parsi Law Collective, shared with CHRI his assessment of the Bloody Friday ruling:

“This case once again reveals the paradox of the Islamic Republic: a regime that swiftly enforces qisas against protesters, even minors, yet has no problem discarding qisas to protect its own murderous agents.

“The recent show trial was merely an attempt to control public opinion, buy the silence of victims’ families (with money taken from the people), and cleanse senior officials of responsibility. Forcing families to accept the false label of ‘martyrs of the Islamic Republic’ is both a blatant lie and a way of spending from the nation’s resources against its own people.

“This confirms that the only path to justice and to preventing future atrocities lies in coordinated international pressure and the prosecution of perpetrators in foreign courts.”

“What They Say About Giving Blood Money is a Lie”

Families of victims have been pressured into declaring their loved ones “martyrs” of the state and registering their cases with the state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, which provides financial benefits to families of veterans and individuals the government recognizes as martyrs or “sacrificers” for the Islamic Republic.

Although this foundation was originally established in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war to assist those killed or disabled in the conflict, over the years it has functioned as a political tool as well—especially in impoverished areas, where victims’ families are often silenced by being forced to choose between desperately needed financial support and judicial accountability.

By designating the dead as “martyrs,” the state offers families limited financial compensation and social benefits, while simultaneously compelling them to adopt the government’s narrative. This framing portrayed victims of the Bloody Friday Massacre as sacrifices for the Islamic Republic rather than protesters against it, thereby sanitizing state violence, erasing the legitimate grievance behind the protests, and shielding officials from accountability.

A source close to the victims’ families told CHRI that the families of the Bloody Friday victims were only allowed to register their loved ones with the Martyrs Foundation if they agreed to sign waivers pledging not to pursue justice or challenge the state’s version of events.

“Only the families who ‘gave their consent’ had their cases processed and registered with the Martyrs Foundation. Families who refused to sign and insisted on seeking justice for their children saw their cases closed, and even the martyrdom of their loved ones was denied. This has especially affected families who lacked identification documents or inheritance papers.”

However, very few of the families were actually designated and received benefits. The Baluch Activists’ Campaign reported in March 2025 that the cases of about 200 families of those killed and wounded in the Bloody Friday massacre were rejected for the Martyrs Foundation, and some were threatened with cancellation of their birth certificates and deportation.

The brother of one of the wounded protesters told the Baluch Activists’ Campaign:

“I am the brother of one of the wounded of Bloody Friday…What they say about giving blood money is a lie. They made a case for my brother, took our information, interrogated us, and sent the case to the Martyrs Foundation. After a year of follow-up, they told us: no blood money, no benefits. Maybe one day, outside the city, if they approve it, we’ll get a 50-square-meter piece of land.”

Baluch Activist: “The authorities exploit the poverty of the people of Baluchistan.”

Fariba Balouch, a leading Baluch activist who was forced to flee Iran after the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, told CHRI that authorities are using the extreme poverty in Sistan and Baluchistan province to silence and pressure victims and survivors.

“The authorities exploit the poverty of the people of Baluchistan. Families who are already struggling to feed themselves, the wounded who become disabled—paralyzed, lost limbs, unable to reach medical centers—are left with no IDs, no money, no ability to work or access healthcare. Imagine their lives after all this. And in Baluchistan, one person might be the breadwinner for several families. When he is killed, multiple families are left orphaned. With no jobs, no IDs, and crushing poverty, this deprivation becomes another weapon used to pressure families.

“For three years, these pressures and threats have continued. Families were told: accept blood money for some of the victims, but not all. They wouldn’t recognize those without IDs, or the wounded, or many of those killed—unless they were officially registered citizens of the province. Only a handful were recognized, and even then, families were pressured to accept blood money and withdraw their complaints.”

Lack of Transparency During Trial and Protecting High-Level Perpetrators

The trials of the perpetrators of the massacre, meanwhile, were a travesty of justice. Only low-ranking officers were prosecuted, shielding those higher on the chain of command who were responsible for the massacre. The judiciary still has not released any details of the Bloody Friday case, including the names of the perpetrators.

In June 2023, the Armed Forces Judicial Organization announced indictments against 11 individuals for “shooting resulting in death and injury” and 15 others for “abuse of position, shooting contrary to regulations, ignoring orders, and negligence.” Indictments were issued, but their names were never made public.

The first hearing, chaired by Judge Mohammad Marzieh, barred a cameraman requested by families of the victims from filming. A second hearing in February 2024 included eyewitnesses, families, and lawyers but involved only seven low-ranking police officers as defendants, who claimed they fired into the air to disperse protesters.

Balouch, who is close to many of the families involved in the Zahedan massacre and received information directly from them, described to CHRI the severe and numerous state and judicial abuses in the Zahedan case, including the arrest of independent lawyers, the silencing of plaintiffs, the exclusion of critical evidence such as CCTV footage and eyewitness testimonies, the denial of representation, and the intimidation of victims’ families.

“When two lawyers wanted to come from Tehran to Zahedan to pursue the case, they were arrested while traveling. Judicial authorities allowed only two local lawyers trusted by the government to enter the case. 

“Each of the officers who appeared in court as defendants had two lawyers, one lawyer from their employer and one personal lawyer. Meanwhile, only two lawyers represented all the plaintiffs in the case. During the two court sessions, the plaintiffs were never allowed to speak or express their opinions. Every time one of the plaintiffs wanted to make a statement or raise an issue, they were immediately reprimanded by the court’s presiding panel.

“After the case was processed by the province’s military prosecutor, judicial authorities said they would only accept complaints from those who were in the area of ​​the Friday prayer grounds and the nearby police station on Bloody Friday. However, on Bloody Friday, many people were killed by the IRGC in the surrounding streets, but judicial authorities said that these cases were unrelated, and the survivors were not allowed to lodge complaints.

“In neither of these two sessions was there a review of the CCTV footage from the police station, the mosque, or the surrounding houses and shops, despite the request from the plaintiffs and their lawyers. Also, there is information that some of the officers involved in the crime were carrying cameras, and according to witnesses, two drones were flying over the crowd that day. Several family members who had lost loved ones on Bloody Friday, witnessed the massacre themselves, and were able to identify the shooters, were not allowed to attend the court sessions.”

Balouch emphasized that an often overlooked issue is the role of IRGC agents who killed or injured many people in the surrounding streets on Bloody Friday, with none of their names or identities ever revealed or held accountable.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), through its Pasdaran Documentation Project—a comprehensive database tracking the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) chain of command and human rights violations—has identified several key officials responsible for the Bloody Friday crackdown in Zahedan:

• Hossein Modarres-Khiabani — Governor of Sistan and Baluchistan during the 2022 protests and head of the Provincial Security Council. He labeled the Bloody Friday protesters as “terrorists” and directed security forces.
• Ahmad Taheri — Head of the Law Enforcement Forces in Sistan and Baluchistan. He had direct authority over the security forces.
• Mahmoud Saadati — Zahedan police commander; ordered lethal force against protesters and later admitted officer negligence.
• Mohammad Karami — Commander of the IRGC’s Quds Base in the southeast; IRGC units under his command suppressed protesters. He also labeled the detained protesters “armed criminals” and promised to air their “confessions.”
• Ahmad Shafahi — Commander of the Salman IRGC in Sistan and Baluchistan. He had direct control over the IRGC and Basij forces that attacked the protesters.
• Abuzar Mehdi Nakhai — Governor of Zahedan and head of the city Security Council, he was directly responsible for directing security forces’ actions.

A group of families of victims and survivors of Bloody Friday issued a statement on January 16, 2025:

“In response to public protests and international pressure, a show trial was convened to examine this crime. However, the rulings, which only convicted a few low-ranking perpetrators with minimal punishments (10 years in prison), reflect a lack of will to prosecute the principal instigators of this tragedy. Why have the commanders and senior officials responsible for this crime not yet been prosecuted? Are these show trials not tools to evade justice and pacify public opinion?” 

Denial of Identification Cards: Systematic Discrimination Against Minority Victims

Baluch people are often denied national identification documents due to the government’s discrimination against minorities. Many are falsely labeled foreigners or illegal immigrants, as they are unable to prove their Iranian nationality, and therefore denied access to basic services and, in this case, justice.

Balouch told CHRI:

“Having an ID card is a legal right of every citizen in any country, and it is the state’s duty to issue it for everyone. Yet in Sistan and Baluchistan, not only are IDs not issued for many people, but when they are, the process is costly, time-consuming, and often never completed. As a result, generation after generation of children are deprived from the very beginning of access to social services. And this, in turn, has been used as a tool to intimidate, repress, and place further pressure on the people—especially after Zahedan’s Bloody Friday.

“Many of those in the mosque that day—the children who were wounded or killed—were from families without ID cards. Many of them were never even identified. Some families, out of fear, buried their children at night to avoid pressure from the authorities. And those without IDs, when they tried to protest, file complaints, or seek justice, faced constant threats that if they didn’t withdraw their complaints, they would be deported.”

Balouch said that even those with identification documents were threatened with revocation and deportation if they demanded justice:

“You don’t see this anywhere else in Iran. Everywhere, families seeking justice face pressure—they are imprisoned, tortured, and harassed. But in Tehran, for example, you don’t see authorities telling a grieving family that their ID will be revoked or that they’ll be expelled from the country if they pursue justice.

“But in Baluchistan, this happens. It’s a province where no law truly exists, not even the Islamic Republic’s own laws. Anyone in power rules as they please. In addition to threatening undocumented people with deportation if they filed complaints, even those who had IDs were threatened with having them revoked.

“Baluchistan is already in absolute poverty, a place that has nothing, and yet they are threatened with being deprived of even that nothing—by canceling their IDs.

“One of the wounded from Bloody Friday in Zahedan actually committed suicide recently. He had been denied services, constantly threatened, and under so much pressure that he eventually took his own life.”

Balouch recounted the case of an 18-year-old Baluch teenager who lost his leg in the massacre and was later threatened with deportation to Afghanistan for refusing to accept blood money.

“At first, the judicial and security officials threatened and intimidated this teenager, who lacks official identification, to force him to accept blood money and give up pursuing the case. When he resisted and insisted that he wanted to seek justice and file a complaint, the judicial officials took away the offer of blood money and threatened to arrest him or deport him to Afghanistan.”

Other plaintiffs who lacked identification faced similar threats, including deportation to Afghanistan, despite being Iranian citizens.

Unpunished Atrocities Are Routine in Iran—especially in Minority Regions

Balouch told CHRI that the court’s verdict—marked by secrecy, ongoing harassment and threats against families—only confirmed what the authorities had been telling the families: “We killed them; take the blood money, that’s all [you’re going to get].”

Moreover, a source close to the victims’ families added that enforcement of even these lighter sentences for lower officers was unlikely: 

“Many families know that even these sentences will not be enforced. As long as there is no trust in the authorities, there can be no expectation that such rulings are even genuine.”

The Islamic Republic has long failed to prosecute state officials responsible for atrocities. In fact, it is surprising that even low-level officers were given relatively mild sentences in the Bloody Friday case; usually, there is no prosecution whatsoever.

In the fall of 2022, after the Zahedan massacre, when the Woman, Life, Freedom protests were still surging across the country, Islamic Republic security forces intentionally shot, cornered, and massacred unarmed civilians, both peaceful protesters and bystanders, in the Kurdish city of Javanrud in northwestern Iran. Eight unarmed civilians were killed, including one child, and 80 civilians, including children, were severely injured. The wounded were beaten in the streets, and those who tried to help the wounded were shot by the security forces. At least 89 people, including 26 children, were arbitrarily arrested and detained, and many were beaten and tortured in state custody, including children. Families of the victims were pressured by the state to remain silent. Not one state agent was ever held accountable. 

During nationwide protests that erupted across Iran in 2019, there was a similarly horrific state massacre of civilians, when Islamic Republic security forces chased, surrounded, shot and killed 40 to 100 demonstrators who were cornered and seeking refuge in a marsh in the southwestern city of Mahshahr. No officials were ever held responsible for these killings.

Indeed, during the 2019 uprisings, more than 7,000 men, women, and children were arrested, hundreds—if not over a thousand—were killed by state security forces, and untold numbers were injured, detained, disappeared, tortured, and sentenced in closed-door trials. Not a single official has yet to be held accountable for the killings and to this day, the families of those killed who continue to try to seek justice face arrest and imprisonment.

It is not coincidental that all of these recent massacres, the Bloody Friday massacre in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province (where the Baluchi ethnic minority predominates), the Javanrud massacre in Kermanshah province (where the Kurdish ethnic minority predominates) and the Mahshahr massacre in Khuzestan province (where the Arab ethnic minority predominates), took place in provinces of Iran dominated by ethnic minority communities.

Especially in the smaller cities in these provinces, egregious state abuses are disproportionately carried out against minority communities with total impunity—and little media attention.

The UN’s International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI), which found that crimes against humanity were committed by the Islamic Republic during the 2022–2023 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, said Iran lacks credible accountability mechanisms and recommended pursuing justice through alternative channels, including national courts abroad under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Increased Security on Anniversary of Massacre Raises Risk of More Violence

The Sistan and Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran, where the Baluch ethnic group is predominant, is the country’s most impoverished, neglected, and underdeveloped region. As Sunni Muslims, Baluch citizens are both an ethnic and religious minority and as a result, face even more intense, intersectional discrimination. 

A source close to the victims’ families told CHRI: 

“On the eve of the third anniversary of Bloody Friday in Zahedan, reports indicate that all military, police, Revolutionary Guard, Basij, and even certain army units in Sistan and Baluchistan province have been placed on extraordinary high alert.”

Balouch added:

“Arbitrary arrests, unregulated shootings, and ongoing detentions have been common in Sistan and Baluchistan for years, with the media’s silence. Now, as we approach the anniversary … pressures have increased and will continue to increase, aimed at intimidating families and discouraging people from seeking justice.