Political and ordinary prisoners across Iran held the 143rd week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, holding hunger strikes in 66 different prisons. The ongoing protest highlights a sustained, organized resistance against the Iranian regime’s heavy reliance on the death penalty as a tool for suppression.
Participating prisoners have faced a severe crackdown from prison authorities, enduring intensified security pressures, threats, communication blackouts, and punitive measures over the past few weeks. Despite these retaliation attempts, the movement has survived for nearly three years and continues to expand its reach behind bars.
In their weekly statement, the striking prisoners highlighted the persistence of their movement: “The continuation of this protest over 143 consecutive weeks and its expansion to 66 prisons reflects the endurance of an organized protest movement against the issuance and execution of death sentences; a campaign that over the past nearly three years, despite security pressures and imposed restrictions, has not only not stopped but has continued.”
The backdrop of this week’s campaign is a massive spike in state-sanctioned killings. The statement reports that the regime has executed at least 72 individuals since late September. At particular risk are those detained during recent nationwide protests.
“The ruling authoritarian government has hanged at least 72 people since late September, and many prisoners, especially detainees of the December 2025–January 2026 uprising, remain at risk of being sentenced to death and executed,” the prisoners warned in their statement.
Human rights organizations corroborate these warnings. Amnesty International recently cautioned that 20 protesters from the December 2025–January 2026 uprisings are at imminent risk of execution, while at least 34 others have already been put to death.
The regime has also accelerated death sentences against political dissidents. In the past week, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the death sentence of female political prisoner Varisheh Moradi, which had previously been overturned.
Despite the grim reality inside the prisons, the campaign has successfully rallied crucial domestic and international support. Recently, Leopoldo Maldonado, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, officially joined the campaign to protest executions in Iran, following the Kurdish “Mothers of Peace” who also pledged their solidarity.
Noting this critical milestone, the prisoners stated: “The widespread support in recent days for the campaign and the opposition to the death penalty on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty showed that the voice of protest against this anti-human punishment continues to grow louder and solidarity with death row prisoners is expanding.”
Concluding their statement, the striking prisoners invited human rights defenders, international organizations, and global consciences to become the voice of death row inmates and to unite in putting an end to capital punishment in Iran.
They emphasized that their ongoing hunger strike is a definitive symbol of resistance to defend the right to life—”a voice that is not silenced even behind prison walls.”
The prisoners participating in the 143rd week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike are from 66 prisons across Iran.