Abdolaziz Rigi was married and he worked at the Zahedan Bazaar.  He worked at a sofa making shop for a while, and he also conducted business in the border areas between Iran with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Information regarding the extrajudicial killing of Mr. Abdolaziz Rigi, son of Azad, has been obtained from an interview with a relative and with an informed source (September 10, 2021; October 10, 2023). Additional background information was gleaned from Police Information Website (July 3, 2005), Al Monitor Website (2017), Minority Rights Group International Organization report (2018), and Human Rights Watch Organization report (1997).

Mr. Abdolaziz Rigi was born in 1977, in a Baluch Sunni family in Zahedan. He completed his high school education in his hometown Zahedan. Mr. Rigi was married and he worked at the bazaar in Zahedan. He worked for a while in a sofa making shop. He also conducted business at the border areas between Iran with Pakistan and Afghanistan (Interview with a relative, September 10, 2021).

Mr. Rigi was the third eldest child in a family of thirteen siblings. According to an informed source, Abdolaziz Rigi was not a member of any political group or organization. However, like many others during those years, “when security was tight and Baluchi youth were killed in random shootings” he was against the government (Interview with an informed source, Oct 10, 2023).

The Baluch in Iran

Believed to make up one to three percent of the country’s population (ABC), Baluchi ethnic groups make up the majority of the population in Sistan-Baluchistan, where 64-77 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Despite having abundant gas, oil, gold, and marine resources, approximately two thirds of residents lack access to clean drinking water, and economic policies have allowed it to remain one of the poorest-sourced provinces in education, health, and food. Civil unrest in the region has given way to militant opposition groups and fatal skirmishes. In moving to bring the region under tighter control, the government has resorted to violence, including assassinations, as well as arbitrary arrests of peaceful human rights defenders. Ten Baluch civil rights activists were arbitrarily detained between March and September of 2017 alone (MRG).

Iran's Baluch minority are mostly Sunni Muslims, whereas the majority of Iran’s population are Shi'a Muslims. Policies and actions from authorities have been restrictive toward the practice of Sunni Islam, e.g. limiting and even blocking the construction of Sunni mosques in majority-Sh’ia areas (including Tehran), arbitrary closure of Sunni prayer halls and celebratory gatherings, and violence from security forces towards groups of Sunnis praying in public (MRG, HRW: Religious Minorities, AL). Lack of institutional support pushes Sunni leaders to pursue study in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, a trend which has historically aroused government suspicion due both to the hostility of Wahabism (the dominant branch of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia) towards Shiism, and to the political tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Baluch activists reported that government repression of Sunni Baluch groups had increased since February 1994, when locals gathered at Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan, to protest the destruction of a Sunni mosque in Mashhad. Government agents reportedly fired shots into the crowd and detained several activists (HRW: Ethnic Minorities). Dr. Sayyad was one of four Sunni clerics of Baluch or Kurd descent to die in suspicious circumstances between 1994 and 1996 (UN, BC article 2/14/16).

Background of Extrajudicial Killings by the Islamic Republic of Iran 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of politically motivated violence in Iran and around the world. Since the 1979 Revolution, Islamic Republic operatives inside and outside the country have engaged in kidnapping, disappearing, and killing a large number of individuals whose activities they deemed undesirable. The actual number of the victims of extrajudicial killings inside Iran is not clear; however, these murders began in February 1979 and have continued since then, both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has so far identified over 540 killings outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Dissidents have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic outside Iran in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, India, and Pakistan in Asia; Dubai, Iraq, and Turkey in the Middle East; Cyprus, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain in Europe; and the United States across the Atlantic Ocean. In most cases, there has not been much published, and local authorities have not issued arrest warrants. But documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm the theory of state committed crimes. In some instances, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion or arrest of Iranian diplomats. In a few cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial. The evidence presented revealed the defendants’ connection to Iran’s government institutions, and an arrest warrant has been issued for Iran’s Minister of Information.

The manner in which these killings were organized and implemented in Iran and abroad is indicative of a single pattern which, according to Roland Chatelin, the Swiss prosecutor, contains common parameters and detailed planning. It can be ascertained from the similarities between these murders in different countries that the Iranian government is the principal entity that ordered the implementation of these crimes. Iranian authorities have not officially accepted responsibility for these murders and have even attributed their commission to internal strife in opposition groups. Nevertheless, since the very inception of the Islamic Republic regime, the Islamic Republic officials have justified these crimes from an ideological and legal standpoint. In the spring of 1979, Sadeq Khalkhali, the first Chief Shari’a Judge of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, officially announced the regime’s decision to implement extrajudicial executions and justified the decision: “ … These people have been sentenced to death; from the Iranian people’s perspective, if someone wants to assassinate these individuals abroad, in any country, no government has any right to bring the perpetrator to trial as a terrorist, because such a person is the implementing agent of the sentence issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Therefore, they are Mahduroddam and their sentence is death regardless of where they are.” More than 10 years after these proclamations, in a speech about the security forces’ success, Ali Fallahian, the regime’s Minister of Information, stated the following regarding the elimination of members of the opposition: “ … We have had success in inflicting damage to many of these little groups outside the country and on our borders.”

At the same time, various political, judicial, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have, at different times and occasions, confirmed the existence of a long term government policy for these extrajudicial killings and in some cases their implementation. 

Read more about the background of extrajudicial killings in the Islamic Republic of Iran by clicking on the left hand highlight with the same title.

Mr. Abdul Aziz Rigi’s Extrajudicial Execution

During winter of 2001, near “the Oil Company Office” and adjacent to the Old Silo at the western side of “Imam Khomeini Street” in Zahedan, members of the Special Unit of the Police Force of Zahedan became “suspicious” of Mr. Abdolaziz Rigi’s vehicle and shot at it. Initially, he was wounded in the leg (knee), but one of his relatives said, “People who witnessed his killing told his family that Colonel Dashtizadeh*, head of the Criminal Investigation Department of Zahedan at the time, personally delivered the coup de grace to Mr. Rigi’s head” (Interview with a relative, September 10, 2021).

Officials’ Reaction

Government officials and state news media did not officially react to the killing of Mr. Rigi. According to a relative, his body was not released for ten days. This source relates that in response to inquiries from the family, not only did these organizations not provide answers, they reacted in such a way as to put the family on the “defensive” (Interview with a relative, September 10, 2021).

Family’s Reaction

Mr. Abdolaziz’s father tried to investigate the killing immediately after it happened. Eventually, due to the unresponsiveness of the relevant organizations, the family abandoned their inquiries into this case (Interview with a relative, September 10, 2021).

Impacts on Family

The killing of Mr. Abdolaziz Rigi, the third eldest child, had a large impact on this family. According to a relative, this killing “broke” Mr. Rigi’s parents. The futility of inquiring into this event became one of the reasons Mr. Rigi’s younger brother Abdolmalek Rigi created an organization named Jondollah** and was drawn into armed resistance activities in Iran (Interview with a relative, September 10, 2021). As a consequence of the formation of Jondollah, some members of the family emigrated, some were executed and some were extra judicially killed.

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*In July 2005, Second Brigadier General Abdollah Dashtizadeh, Police Chief of Zahedan at the time, and Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigation in the State of Sistan and Baluchestan, was shot and killed by forces in opposition to the government of Iran. Iranian police claimed Mr. Dashtizadeh and his six military escort personnel were killed by Mr. Abdolmalek Rigi (Police Information Website, July 3, 2005). According to an informed source, Mr. Dashtizadeh was killed suddenly, and his killing was not a result of Mr. Rigi’s activities (Interview with Boroumand Center, October 10, 2023).

** Jondollah, and  The Popular Resistance Movement of Iran, known as Jondollah, was established in 2003. This group declared its goal as the struggle for achieving the religious and national rights of Baluch and Sunni people in Sistan Va Baluchestan province in Iran and emphasized that it is not a separatist group. In 2005, this group began a series of military operations against Islamic Republic forces during which dozens of the regime’s forces were captured or killed. In response, the Islamic Republic arrested and executed dozens of members of this group; military operations continue in Sistan Va Baluchestan. In an interview with the media outside of Iran, the leader of this group, Abdolmalek Rigi, rejected the government’s labels of “terrorist” and “foreign agent” and claimed that they began their struggle against the Islamic Republic to replace it with “a popular regime that recognizes the rights of all humans.” The news of this arrest was published by the Intelligence Ministry of Iran on February 23, 2010, and the circumstance of his arrest is yet unknown. Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged in the Evin prison on June 20, 2010. In early 2011 a number of Jondollah’s members under the leadership of Sallahudin Farroughi established the Jaish ul-Adl organization, implementing organizational and structural changes and reconsidering some of their former methods. Jaish ul-Adl describes itself as a Sunni group emphasizing “federalism for Iran and self-rule for Baluchistan” as well as “armed struggle against the Islamic Republic.”

News of the arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, the head of this group, was published by the Ministry of Information of Iran, on February 23, 2010. Details of his arrest remain unknown. Abdolmalek Rigi was executed by hanging at Evin Prison on June 20, 2010. In the winter of 2011, some members of Jundullah founded Jaish ul-Adl Organization by restructuring the organization and rethinking some of their former methods. The head of this organization was Salaheddin Farouqi. Jaish ul-Adl considers itself a Sunni group with the goal of  ”Federalism for Iran and Independence for Baluchestan”  and “armed struggle against the Islamic Republic” (Boroumand Center Research).

During the last three decades there have been fierce mutual conflicts between these organizations and the Iranian military forces.