In an open letter dated December 5, Iranian political prisoner Saeed Masouri has called on Iranian students to take part in the campaign against the growing wave of executions in Iran.
“It may not be an exaggeration to say that today in our country, Iran, countless individuals are directly killed and deprived of life, while countless others are indirectly subjected to this killing and deprivation—not with atomic bombs, but with execution ropes and hangings,” Masouri writes.
In his letter, Masouri writes that the regime is using executions under the pretext to prevent crimes but is in fact carrying out massacres.
“When executions and hangings become legally sanctioned, they pave the way for arbitrary and mass killings. This is especially true under a regime with a medieval and criminal nature, far more dangerous than the atomic bomb,” he writes. “The campaign and movement aimed at neutralizing this ‘activated execution bomb’ is far more critical and serious than the opposition of that era to the atomic bomb.”
Masourin warns that the legalization of executions provides the regime with “a framework for arbitrary and mass killings, especially following [the regime’s] failures in Gaza, Lebanon, and more recently Syria.”
These waves of executions are meant “to intimidate the exasperated public and ensure the regime’s survival,” he writes.
Masouri ends his letter by calling on students, professors, and teachers, who will be marking Iran’s “Student Day” on December 6, to take part in the campaign to end executions in Iran:
“Here, students, professors, and teachers—among the most enlightened social groups—are expected to lead the way in supporting the abolition of the death penalty and the ‘No to Execution’ campaign as one of the most urgent human responsibilities in their homeland with everything at their disposal, whether through words and writings, or actions and banners.”
The letter comes as Iran’s regime has been ramping up executions in the past months. Since the inauguration of the regime’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, at least 540 executions have occurred with 152 executions taking place in the Persian month of Aban (October 22 – November 20) alone. On November 20, the UN General Assembly adopted the 71st resolution condemning the regime’s egregious human rights violations.