Simultaneous with the fifty-seventh week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, prisoners in 37 prisons across Iran have went on hunger strike and protesting the widespread executions in Iran.
With the increase in executions and widespread suppression of prisoners, a group of prisoners in Qazvin’s Chobindar Prison announced that in order to confront the unjust death sentences of political and non-political prisoners, this week on Tuesday, February 25, in line with other members of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, they will go on hunger strike, and they will continue their strike along with the campaign until the regime’s machine of suppression and execution is stopped.
In their statement, the prisoners write” The despotic government of mullahs, after the end of the government ceremonies in the month of Bahman (January 20 – February 18), has once again increased the implementation of death sentences; so that in the first and second days of the month of Esfand (February 19-20) alone, 17 prisoners were executed, 10 of whom were hanged in Qezel Hesar prison.”
The prisoners warned that the killing of inmate is not only through executions and that in the past week, three prisoners in the prisons of Urmia, Lajevardi of Iranshahr, and Dehdasht died due to lack of medical attention.
“This situation threatens the lives of many other prisoners,” they wrote. “The death of sick prisoners due to lack of timely medical care is nothing but ‘systematic murder.’”
The prisoners also warned about the conditions of political prisoners Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani, whose retrial request was rejected by the regime’s supreme court and are now at the imminent risk of execution.
“This terrible situation also exists for prisoners such as Pakhshan Azizi and Verisha Moradi in Evin Prison, Sharifeh Mohammadi in Lakan Rasht Prison, and many others,” they write.
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign had previously predicted that with the appointment of Jafar Montazeri – the former Attorney General of the regime – as the head of the Supreme Court, considering his background in establishing security institutions over the judiciary and further violating the independence of the judiciary, there is a possibility of “channeling prisoners’ cases” in the Court and assigning special branches to confirm the baseless verdicts of the Revolutionary Court.
“This appointment fully demonstrated the inefficiency of this body in providing fair trial,” their statement reads.
“This campaign strongly condemns all death sentences, regardless of the charges against the convicts, and will spare no effort to prevent and abolish the death penalty in Iran,” the statement reads. “Therefore, it calls on all human rights defenders, political, civil, trade union activists, and awakened consciences in Iran and around the world to unite to abolish executions in Iran and be the voice of prisoners sentenced to death.”
The prisoners participating in the 57th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike are from Evin Prison (women’s ward, wards 4 and 8), Ghezel Hesar Prison (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Greater Tehran Prison, Arak Prison, Khorramabad Prison, Asadabad Prison in Isfahan, Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, Nezam Prison in Shiraz, Bam Prison, Kahnuj Prison, Mashhad Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Lakan Prison in Rasht (men’s and women’s wards), Ardabil Prison, Tabriz Prison, Urmia Prison, Salmas Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Saqqez Prison, Baneh Prison, Marivan Prison, Kamyaran Prison, Tabas Prison, Khorin Prison in Varamin, Rudsar Prison in Gilan, Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz, Ramhormoz Prison, Talesh Prison, Adelabad Prison in Shiraz (men’s and women’s wards), Joveyn Prison, Borazjan Prison, Gonbad-e Kavus Prison, Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, and Chobindar Prison in Qazvin.