BRIAN EGAN AND JOCELYN HUTTON
With reference to the underlying power
‘drug mules’ to transport drugs across the
dynamics of cross-border drug trafficking and the
border.”51 Furthermore, Zalmay Barakzai has found
death penalty in Malaysia, Hoyle and Harry have
that in four border villages in Ghoryan, Afghanistan,
found that those facing capital punishment for drug
as many as 1,000 children have disappeared since
trafficking in Malaysia are disproportionately from
2002 after being persuaded to smuggle heroin
the socio-economic margins and are often merely
across the Iranian border.52
acting
as
kingpins.
47
‘drug-mules’
for
more
powerful
Similarly, Ahmed Shaheed and Faraz
Sanei have found that “there is evidence to suggest
that
drug
crimes,
and
drug
prosecutions,
disproportionately affect the poor and other
vulnerable groups, including members of Iran’s
ethnic minorities and foreign nationals, especially
Afghans.”48 This becomes particularly concerning
when
considered
alongside
the
growing
international consensus of there being a ‘nexus’
between drug and human trafficking, amidst
growing calls for a ‘non-punishment principle.’49
However, Jennifer Chacon’s research has noted
that instead of being treated as victims of
trafficking and exploitation, the default state
response to these individuals is criminalisation. In
particular, she has “demonstrated that ultimately
the goal of victim protection is overpowered by the
goal of prosecuting noncitizen traffickers and using
anti-trafficking legislation as a de-facto form of
migrant control.”50 Therefore the punitive arm of
the sovereign state – seeking to protect its borders
– dominates any ancillary concerns surrounding
human-trafficking or child exploitation.
This is evident in Iran. The human rights charity
Reprieve have expressed concern that “there are
indicators to suggest that a number of migrant
workers facing the death penalty for drug offences
may have been victims of human trafficking, who
were vulnerable people who were forced to act as
Barakzai also reported parents renting out their
children to drug-smugglers, and found that an
estimated 60 Afghan children over the past 10
years have died from swallowed capsules of heroin
which subsequently burst in their stomach. Despite
these vulnerabilities, and despite some loosening of
the drug-laws, victims of cross-border drug
trafficking are still regularly sentenced to death in
Iran. Mohammad Ali Zehi, for example, is an Afghan
national at imminent risk of execution for his
involvement in drug trafficking when a minor,
despite
the
new
law
ostensibly
forbidding
execution of those under 18 for ta’zir crimes.
Whilst his counsel has argued that he was a minor
at time of commission, he was unable to prove this
as he is an undocumented migrant in Iran without
an official birth certificate from Afghanistan.53
When arrested, Zehi was held in a local police
station without access to counsel or his family for
two months, with reports that the court relied on
confessions obtained from torture to sentence him
to death.54
Therefore despite ostensible reform, it is
evident that foreign nationals from Pakistan and
Afghanistan continue to be executed for drug
related offences. This is particularly concerning
given the well-documented, multi-faceted and
coalesced disadvantages that these individuals
face.
7