In a coordinated protest against Iran’s escalating execution rate, prisoners in 37 detention facilities across the country have launched a hunger strike, coinciding with the fifty-seventh week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign.
With executions and systemic repression on the rise, a group of detainees in Qazvin’s Chobindar Prison declared their participation in the hunger strike as a stance against the unjust capital sentences imposed on both political and non-political prisoners. In a statement, they announced their intention to join the broader campaign on Tuesday, February 25, and continue their strike until Iran’s execution machinery is halted.
The statement from the prisoners explicitly condemns the surge in executions, particularly following the conclusion of government ceremonies in the Persian Calendar month of Bahman (January 20 – February 18), which marks the anniversary of the 1979 revolution. According to their report, during February 19 – 20, 17 prisoners were executed, including 10 individuals hanged in Qezel Hesar Prison.
This matches reports from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which has stated that that in just two days—February 19 and 20—at least 14 prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hesar, Mahabad, Amol, Isfahan, and Bushehr prisons. The execution wave has continued relentlessly, with at least 850 executions recorded during the tenure of the regime’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, as part of the regime’s systematic strategy to instill fear and suppress dissent.
Beyond executions, the statement also highlights the deteriorating conditions inside Iran’s prisons, warning that inmate deaths are not solely due to capital punishment. In the past week alone, three prisoners in Urmia, Lajevardi of Iranshahr, and Dehdasht reportedly died due to inadequate medical attention.
“This situation threatens the lives of many other prisoners,” the statement reads. “The death of sick prisoners due to lack of timely medical care is nothing but ‘systematic murder.’”
The prisoners also expressed grave concern over the fates of political detainees Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani, whose retrial requests have been denied by the Supreme Court, placing them at imminent risk of execution. Similar concerns were raised for other detainees, including Pakhshan Azizi and Verisha Moradi in Evin Prison and Sharifeh Mohammadi in Lakan Rasht Prison.
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign had previously warned that the appointment of Jafar Montazeri—formerly Iran’s Attorney General—as the new head of the Supreme Court would further entrench judicial repression. Montazeri’s background in overseeing security institutions within the judiciary, the campaign asserts, has led to a concerted effort to manipulate legal proceedings and reinforce Revolutionary Court verdicts without due process.
“This appointment fully demonstrated the inefficiency of this body in providing fair trials,” the statement declared.
The campaign reaffirmed its commitment to opposing capital punishment and pledged to continue advocating for its abolition in Iran. It called upon human rights defenders, political and civil activists, trade unionists, and the global community to amplify the voices of those on death row and work collectively to end executions in Iran.
As the hunger strike unfolds, the international human rights community will be watching closely to see how the Iranian authorities respond to this growing resistance from within the nation’s prison walls.
