UN investigators have bashed Iran's execution last weekend of alleged terrorist Javid Dehghan, warning of an unfair trial and a recent spate of executions of members of his minority ethnic Baluch group.
In a statement on Thursday, UN rapporteurs Javaid Rehman and Agnes Callamard complained that Dehghan, 31, was hanged despite appeals for a retrial over his conviction on terrorism and abduction charges.
“We informed the Iranian government of grave concerns that Mr Dehghan’s death sentence followed serious violations of his fair trial rights,” wrote the experts.
“He was tortured, held in prolonged solitary confinement, subjected to enforced disappearance and forced to confess – concerns that do not appear to have been investigated by the Iranian authorities.”
Dehghan was executed on Saturday in the restive south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, one day after the UN’s human rights office urged Tehran not to carry out the punishment.
He was arrested in June 2015 and accused of involvement in an ambush by the extremist group Jaish Ul Adl, which means Army of Justice, that caused the deaths of two officers from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He was “forcibly disappeared” and held in solitary for three months before being moved to Sistan-Baluchestan’s Zahedan Central Prison, the UN rapporteurs said. He was denied access to a lawyer and made a confession under torture.
A Revolutionary Court in Zahedan sentenced Dehghan to death in May 2017 despite hearing claims that he had been tortured and retracted his confession. He was denied an appeal and a judicial review.
“The concerns raised in this case of serious fair trial violations, including lack of an effective right of appeal and a torture-induced forced confession, mean that the Iranian government’s implementation of his death sentence amounts to an arbitrary execution,” wrote the experts.
UK-based rights group Amnesty International has also said Dehghan's trial was "grossly unfair" with the court relying on "torture-tainted confessions" and ignoring abuses committed during the investigation.
Iran's mission to the UN did not immediately respond to The National's request for comment.
Tehran has come under global pressure over a recent spate of executions of high-profile figures, including the formerly France-based dissident Ruhollah Zam on December 12 and wrestler Navid Afkari on September 12.
The UN experts noted a spike in executions in Iran’s south-east, including some 21 Baluch detainees in Zahedan, Mashhad and Isfahan prisons since mid-December 2020, often on drugs or national security charges.
At least 124 prisoners are reportedly on death row in Zahedan Central Prison, they said.
“We are very disturbed by this trend of executions against Baluch minority prisoners on death row and by practices of enforced disappearance of persons belonging to minorities,” they wrote.
Jaish Ul Adl, a Sunni Muslim extremist group that operates from bases in Sistan-Baluchestan and neighbouring Pakistan, has carried out several high-profile kidnappings and bombings in Iran in recent years.
In February 2019, 27 IRGC members died in a suicide attack claimed by the group, which was formed in 2012 as a successor to Jundallah, which had waged a deadly Sunni insurgency for a decade.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
