The “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, a prisoner-led movement inside Iran, marked its 89th consecutive week with a coordinated hunger strike across 52 prisons nationwide. This powerful act of defiance comes on the eve of the World Day Against the Death Penalty and in the face of an unprecedented wave of state-sanctioned executions by the Iranian regime. The campaign’s participants are sending a clear message that the death penalty is the regime’s primary tool of political terror to crush dissent, a sentiment that has now been adopted by protesters from all walks of life, including teachers, retirees, workers, and students.
Silent Execution of Political Prisoners in Iran: Death Under Medical Deprivation
A Regime Breaking Records in Brutality
In a statement released for its 89th week, the campaign highlighted the stark contrast between global trends and the situation in Iran. While 145 countries have abolished or ceased using the death penalty in law or practice, the statement declared that the ruling system in Iran “breaks new records in brutality and executions every day.” The horrifying statistics underscore the scale of the crisis: at least 1,695 people have been executed in the past year (since October 1, 2024), with 957 of those hangings taking place since March 21, 2025, the beginning of the new Persian calendar year. The statement acknowledges that the true figures are likely much higher.
The campaign honored the memory of seven political prisoners executed just days earlier on Saturday, October 4: six Arab compatriots—Ali Mojadam, Mohammadreza Moghadam, Moein Khanfari, Habib Deris, Adnan Ghobeishavi, and Seyed Salem Mousavi—and one Kurdish compatriot, Saman Mohammadi Khiareh. The statement also noted that on the same day, the regime’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei-Sani for the third time.
The Death Penalty as a Tool of Political Terror
The campaign’s statement analyzes the regime’s motives, asserting that the death penalty in Iran is not a tool for justice but rather “an instrument for intimidation and creating terror in a society that is on the verge of explosion.” According to the regime’s logic, every protest and every protester must be met with the threat of execution and imprisonment. It is for this reason, the statement argues, that “No to Execution” has become a unifying slogan for all segments of Iranian society.
A Call to Conscience and a Tribute to Teachers
Coinciding with World Teachers’ Day, the statement also paid tribute to martyred teachers like Samad Behrangi and Farzad Kamangar, who “taught lessons of freedom and equality in Iran’s history and ultimately sacrificed their lives for that cause.”
The campaign concludes with an urgent appeal to all “awakened consciences—civil activists, writers, artists, teachers, retirees, and workers—to raise their voices louder against execution.” The goal, the statement affirms, is to “take away the main tool of repression and suffocation from the hands of this execution-based government,” thereby paving the way for justice and freedom.
