Prisoners across Iran held the 47th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign on December 17, 2024. The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign is a coordinated protest movement initiated by political prisoners across Iran to oppose the regime’s extensive use of the death penalty. Since it began in early 2024, the campaign has involved weekly hunger strikes and statements condemning executions, aiming to raise awareness and mobilize both national and international support against capital punishment in Iran.
In their statement, the participants in the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign declared that prisoners in Tabas Prison and Khorin Prison in Varamin have joined the campaign, expanding the movement to 27 prisons in its 47th week.
“As we witness, in recent months, the number of executions has peaked, and the criminal regime seizes every opportunity to take human lives,” the statement reads in part.
The campaign noted that following the collapse of the criminal Assad regime in Syria, a drug factory linked to Iran’s regime was discovered, where tens of tons of drugs were stored and distributed globally. “Meanwhile, every day, we witness the execution of prisoners in Iran accused of possessing only a few grams of drugs,” they wrote. “From last Tuesday until now, at least 40 people have been executed, some of whom were hanged on drug-related charges.”
The statement also warned that the oppressed people of Sistan and Baluchestan, who face widespread deprivation and additional oppression, accounted for at least 10 of the executed individuals this week.
“Amid this ongoing repression, in recent days, a prisoner named Mohammad Amin Mahdavi Shayesteh, who was sentenced to death on espionage charges in an unclear and unjust trial, has been transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison, where there is a risk of his sentence being confirmed and carried out,” the statement warns. “Another political prisoner in Ghezel Hesar Prison, named Saman Mohammadi Khiareh, who has been unjustly imprisoned for 15 years and sentenced to death, has been moved to solitary confinement, raising fears that his execution might be imminent.”
The Tuesdays Against Executions campaign, with a serious warning regarding the lives of death-row prisoners, reaffirms that this campaign was formed to resist execution sentences.
“As this regime uses executions to maintain its survival, it is absolutely essential to stand against this inhumane act in every possible way and to amplify the voices of death-row prisoners and their families,” the statement reads in part. “The activists of this campaign also call on all compatriots to take the initiative to resist the execution and oppression machinery of this tyrannical regime, assist death-row prisoners, and rest assured that the day of public awakening to dismantle the gallows in Iran is near.”
The 27 prisons participating in the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign on December 17, were: Evin (women’s ward, wards 4 and 8), Ghezel Hesar (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 Prison (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, and Khorin Prison in Varamin.
The campaign entered its week while Iran’s regime continues to ramp up executions in its prisons.
On December 15, eleven prisoners, including a woman, were hanged in Yazd and Zahedan. On Thursday, December 12, three prisoners were executed in Shiraz. On Thursday, December 11, four prisoners were executed in Mashhad and Isfahan.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), stated that while the cycle of bloodshed and death under the clerical regime continues unabated, silence and inaction in the face of the unprecedented wave of executions in Iran are disgraceful. Deals, negotiations, and relations with the regime of executions, terror, and warmongering must be halted.
13 executions were recorded on Wednesday, December 11, alone, and 592 executions have been carried out since August, including 21 #women. This is the grim legacy of the regime's new presidency for the people of #Iran! Each day, the lines of grieving families and orphaned children…
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) December 12, 2024
“Silence and inaction in the face of the godfather of executions and terrorism trample upon universal human rights principles and fuel the machinery of terrorism and warmongering,” Mrs. Rajavi warned. “The international community must reject the clerical regime, and its leaders must be brought to justice for 46 years of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes.”