In the 136th week of the ongoing “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, prisoners in 62 prisons across the country went on hunger strike on Tuesday, September 1, once again protesting the issuance and carrying out of death sentences.
Iranshahr joins the prisons participating in the campaign
Over three years of continuous activity, the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign has expanded beyond a handful of prisons and become one of the broadest organized protest movements inside Iran’s prisons against the death penalty. Continuing this trend, Iranshahr Prison has also joined the prisons participating in the campaign, bringing the total number of participating prisons to 62.
The gradual increase in the number of prisons participating in this movement demonstrates the growing demand among prisoners to halt executions and its transformation into a sustained collective protest.
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In this week’s statement, the prisoners, referring to the issuance and implementation of death sentences against protesters, the continuation of repression, and increasing pressure on political prisoners, once again stressed the need to oppose the death penalty and called for the expansion of this protest and solidarity across the country. The statement reads:
The full text of the statement follows:
Iranshahr Prison joins the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign in its 136th week
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign expands to 62 different prisons
At a time when rampant inflation and an unprecedented decline in the value of the national currency have pushed the livelihoods and purchasing power of most segments of society below the poverty line, livelihood crises are growing increasingly severe. These days, we are witnessing a deep economic and social crisis and a widening class divide between a minority with the blood of the majority on their hands; Iran’s regime has taken no action to improve people’s welfare or solve their problems other than seeking to preserve its own survival and that of the class dependent on it. Meanwhile, to prevent protests by an outraged population, the government has subjected society and prisoners to severe repression. As a result, we witness the implementation of inhumane death sentences or the issuance of new ones on a daily basis.
In the final week of August alone, the repressive government executed at least 32 people, including two women. In addition, a large number of those arrested during the nationwide January uprising have been sentenced to death or are at risk of receiving such a sentence. These include the 10 defendants in the “Shohada Square” case in Isfahan, political prisoner Leila Abolhosseini in Isfahan’s Dowlatabad Prison, and the confirmation of Ali-Asghar Peyghambari’s death sentence at Ghezel Hesar Prison. All of these individuals have been subjected to injustice without the right to a defense or a fair trial, and their lives are at risk.
Under such circumstances, resisting and opposing the inhumane death penalty is extremely important and necessary. Therefore, this campaign calls on all political, human rights, labor, and civil activists, as well as all awakened consciences across Iran, to oppose and stand against a killing machine that, every day and without stopping, takes the lives of people, citizens, and political prisoners on fabricated charges.
This week, a group of prisoners at Iranshahr Prison in Sistan and Baluchestan Province also joined the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, bringing the campaign’s reach to 62 different prisons.
On Tuesday, September 1, during the campaign’s 136th week, members of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign went on hunger strike in 62 prisons across the country.
