‘No to Executions Tuesdays’ Campaign Calls for Accountability and Support

On Tuesday, September 24, the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, consisting of protesting prisoners from 21 prisons across the country, issued a statement urging “representatives of governments at the United Nations and all human rights institutions” to hold the Iranian regime accountable for the ongoing wave of executions. The statement was released in conjunction with the visit of Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the United Nations, urging international representatives to question and hold him responsible for the systematic execution of prisoners.

In their statement, which coincided with a hunger strike, the prisoners emphasized the need for the Iranian regime to be condemned at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. They questioned how Pezeshkian, despite the widespread boycott of elections and lacking the majority vote, could claim to represent the people of Iran.

The statement highlighted recent injustices, including the death sentences of two political prisoners, Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani, who were arrested during the 2022 protests and sentenced on fabricated charges without a fair trial. It also noted that Mohammad Javad Vafai Thani, a boxer and political prisoner arrested during the November 2019 protests, has been sentenced to death for the third time. Additionally, the death sentence of Hatem Ozdemir, a political prisoner incarcerated since 2019, was confirmed even after a previous rejection.

Condemning these verdicts, the campaign stressed that many prisoners sentenced to death for drug-related crimes are victims of poverty and harsh living conditions, for which the regime bears significant responsibility. The prisoners asserted that these inhumane death sentences, issued in blatant violation of human rights standards, are intended solely to instill fear in society and prevent a resurgence of nationwide protests, infringing upon the people’s fundamental right to protest.

The statement also drew attention to the start of the academic year, commemorating the students and teachers who were killed during the Mahsa uprising in 2022. It highlighted the plight of nearly one million children and teenagers deprived of education due to widespread poverty, forcing them into child labor.

As part of the 35th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, prisoners in 21 different prisons, including Evin Prison (women’s ward, wards four and eight), Qezalhasar (units three and four), Karaj Central, Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, Khorramabad, Nizam Shiraz, Asadabad, Isfahan, Bam, Mashhad, Qaem Shahr, Lakan Rasht, Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Khoy, Naqadeh, Salmas, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, and Kamyaran, are on hunger strike in protest against these inhumane death sentences.

The campaign called on the public and all domestic and international human rights activists to support the striking prisoners and the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign in defense of the prisoners’ right to life and the abolition of the death penalty.