Prisoners across 56 facilities in Iran held the 122nd week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike on May 26, 2026. The campaign, which has persistently protested the Iranian regime’s use of the death penalty, issued a statement detailing a severe surge in executions and urging decisive action from the international community.
According to the striking prisoners, the regime has executed at least 72 individuals since the start of the Persian New Year on March 21, 2026. Of these, more than 25 were political or security prisoners. Recent victims include Abbas Akbari Faizabadi, a youth arrested during the nationwide December 2025–January 2026 uprisings. The judiciary executed Akbari on fabricated charges of “Moharebeh” (waging war against God), labeling him an “armed leader” of protests in Nain. Also executed were Kurdish political prisoners Ramin Zeleh and Karim Maroufpour, who faced brief trials devoid of independent legal representation, and Mojtaba Kian, who was hanged on espionage charges without the right to a fair trial.
The prisoners’ statement warned that hundreds of other unnamed inmates currently remain on death row. Just this past week, death sentences were confirmed or re-confirmed for several political prisoners. These include Manouchehr Fallah in Rasht’s Lakan Prison, Rouhollah Karaki in Ahvaz’s Sheiban Prison, and defendants from the “Ekbatan town” case: Milad Armoun, Navid Najjaran, Mehdi Imani, and Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini.
The weekly campaigns have drawn severe retaliation from prison authorities, particularly targeting female detainees. In Evin Prison’s women’s ward, inmates who chant anti-execution slogans every Tuesday have been banned from family visitations and deprived of phone calls. Emphasizing the vanguard role of women in Iran’s recent history—including the December 2017–January 2018, November 2019, September 2022, and December 2025–January 2026 uprisings—the prisoners noted that the regime “cannot even tolerate the voices of women, because misogyny has been one of the main pillars of the government since day one.”
Recent executions have triggered condemnation from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, Amnesty International, and the European Parliament, which passed a resolution demanding European states condition political relations with Iran on the cessation of executions.
Echoing these demands, the striking prisoners issued a direct plea: “We, the members of the ‘No to Executions Tuesdays’ campaign, once again call on international human rights organizations and awakened consciences to take effective measures to prevent the continuation of inhuman executions and to stand alongside the Iranian people in the tragedy of executions and their demand for freedom, justice, and the abolition of the death penalty.”
The prisoners participating in the 122nd week of the hunger strike are located across 56 facilities, including: Evin Prison (men’s and women’s wards), Ghezel Hesar Prison (units 2, 3, and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Fardis Karaj, Greater Tehran, Qarchak, Khorin Varamin, Chobindar Qazvin, Ahar, Arak, Langerud Qom, Khorramabad, Borujerd, Yasuj, Asadabad Isfahan, Dastgerd Isfahan, Sheiban Ahvaz, Sepidar Ahvaz (men’s and women’s wards), Nezam Shiraz, Adelabad Shiraz (men’s and women’s wards), Firuzabad Fars, Dehdasht, Zahedan (men’s and women’s wards), Borazjan, Ramhormoz, Behbahan, Bam, Yazd (men’s and women’s wards), Kahnuj, Tabas, Birjand Central, Mashhad, Gorgan, Sabzevar, Gonbad Kavus, Qaemshahr, Rasht (men’s and women’s wards), Rudsar, Haviq Talesh, Ezbaram Lahijan, Dizel Abad Kermanshah, Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Salmas, Khoy, Naqadeh, Miandoab, Mahabad, Bukan, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, Sanandaj, Kamyaran, and Ilam Prison.