Prisoners across Iran marked the 136th consecutive week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign on September 1, 2026, holding hunger strikes to protest the systematic use of capital punishment. Despite severe security pressures, threats, and punitive measures restricting their contact with the outside world, the campaign has now expanded to 62 prisons across the country, with Iranshahr Prison in Sistan and Baluchestan province joining the strike this week.
In their weekly statement, the striking prisoners highlighted the sharp rise in executions, noting that the regime executed at least 32 people, including two women, in just the final week of August 2026.
The prisoners pointed directly to the regime’s use of violence to mask its domestic failures and rampant corruption.
“In conditions where hyperinflation and an unprecedented drop in the national currency’s value have pushed the livelihoods and purchasing power of most segments of society below the poverty line, livelihood crises have expanded day by day,” the prisoners wrote in their statement. “These days, we are witnessing a deep economic and social crisis, and a class divide involving a minority whose hands are in the blood of the majority; the ruling ‘Velayat-e Faqih’ takes no action for the welfare and resolution of people’s problems other than attempting to preserve its own survival and its affiliated class. On the other hand, to prevent the protests of an exasperated public, the government has resorted to severe repression of society and prisoners.”
The statement issued a stark warning regarding the fate of those detained during the December 2025–January 2026 uprisings. According to the prisoners, many of these detainees have either been sentenced to death or are in grave danger of receiving capital punishment.
The campaign highlighted specific cases, including 10 defendants in the “Shohada Square” case in Isfahan, female political prisoner Leila Abolhassani in Isfahan’s Dowlatabad Prison, and Ali-Asghar Peyghambari in Ghezel Hesar Prison. The striking prisoners emphasized that all these individuals have been processed “without the right to a defense and a fair trial.”
“In such circumstances, resistance and confronting the inhumane death penalty is highly important and necessary,” the prisoners declared. “Therefore, this campaign calls upon all political, human rights, trade union, and civil activists, and all awakened consciences across Iran to confront and stand against the killing machine that daily and non-stop takes the lives of people, citizens, and political prisoners on bogus charges.”
The prisoners participating in the 136th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike are located in 62 facilities across the country.