Iran’s regime hanged a prisoner in public in Shahrud on August 26, according to Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, the Chief Justice of Semnan Province. On the same day, regime authorities hanged a 25-year-old prisoner in Zahedan Prison.
On August 24, the regime executed two other prisoners in Qazvin and Isfahan. And on August 22, two prisoners were hanged in Tabriz and Nahavand, following two other executiosn in Yazd and Miandoab on the previous day. On Monday, August 19, four prisoners were hanged in Zanjan and Ghezel Hesar prisons.
This brings the number of documented executions during the Iranian month of Mordad (July 22 to August 21) to at least 126. Ironically, this alarming wave of executions is coinciding with the endorsement, inauguration, and cabinet appointment of new regime president Massoud Pezeshkian, whom the regime is trying to frame as a moderate and reformist.
Meanwhile, political prisoners, disillusioned with any chance of moderation or reform from within the regime, held the 31st week of the “No to Executions on Tuesdays” on August 27, with hunger strikes in 19 prisons across the country. Two Italian parliamentarians have also joined the campaign, holding hunger strikes in solidarity with the political prisoners.
The prisons where a group of prisoners started the 31st week of the “No to Executions on Tuesdays” campaign include Evin, Ghezel Hesar Prison, Karaj Central Prison, Khorramabad, Nezam Prison in Shiraz, Mashhad, Lakan Prison in Rasht, Qaem Shahr, Tabriz, Ardabil, Urmia, Khoy, Naqadeh, Salmas, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, Kamyaran, and the Greater Tehran prison.
In their statement for the 31st week of the campaign, the striking prisoners declared: “In the newly appointed government, at least 126 people have been taken to the gallows in Mordad, and their right to life was taken away. Thousands of prisoners across the country are also awaiting execution.”
The statement for the 31st week also stated: “The new cabinet can be called the cabinet of repression and execution. However, despite all the pressures and repressions that the religious despotism has imposed on this campaign and Iranian society, prisoners continue to resist and stand against repression and executions.”
The striking prisoners’ statement reads: “We appreciate all those inside and outside the country who have supported this campaign, which aims to abolish executions and torture in Iran, and once again, we call on all prisoners in various prisons to join the ‘No to Executions on Tuesdays’ campaign.”
The striking prisoners’ statement: “With gratitude to the Italian parliamentarians who have declared their support for the ‘No to Executions on Tuesdays’ campaign, we call on all awakened consciences around the world to support this campaign for the abolition of the death penalty and to stand against it.”
Iran’s regime, entangled in domestic and international crises and fearful of a popular uprising, spares no crime. Silence in the face of this regime of terror and execution betrays universal human rights values and only encourages further repression and killings in Iran, as well as war and terrorism in the region and beyond.