29 January 2025 :
January 28, 2025 - IRAN - 53rd Week of Hunger Strikes in 34 Prisons, Marking Year 2 of “No to Execution Tuesdays”
53rd Week of Prisoners’ Hunger Strike and the Beginning of the 2nd Year of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign Across 34 Prisons----A Broad National and International Campaign Against “Executions with Political Objectives”
Support from 3,000 parliamentarians, mayors, religious and political figures from 78 countries for the “No to Execution” campaign in Iran.
Confidential judiciary documents reveal thousands of prisoners are on death row, and the number of inmates far exceeds prison capacity.
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, initiated by political prisoners in Ghezel-Hesar Prison on January 29, 2024, in protest against the judiciary’s brutal executions and inhumane death sentences, marks its 53rd week today and enters its 2nd year. Over the past year, the campaign has evolved into a nationwide protest movement, expanding to 34 prisons across the country.
In addition to Ghezel-Hesar Prison (Units 3 and 4), prisons such as Evin (women’s ward and wards 4 and 8), Greater Tehran Central Prison, Karaj Central Prison, Khorin Varamin Prison, Arak Prison, Khorramabad Prison, Isfahan’s Asadabad Prison, Isfahan’s Dastgerd Prison, Ahvaz’s Sheiban Prison, Shiraz Nezam Prison, Bam Prison, Kahnuj Prison, Tabas Prison, Mashhad Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Rasht Lakan Prison (male and female wards), Rudsar Prison, Ardabil Prison, Tabriz Prison, Urmia Prison, Salmas Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Saqqez Prison, Baneh Prison, Marivan Prison, Kamyaran Prison, Haviq Talesh Prison, Adelabad Prison in Shiraz (women’s ward), Ahvaz Sepidar Prison, Ramhormoz Prison, Jovein Prison in Khorasan Razavi, and Borazjan Prison in Bushehr have joined this protest movement and participate in hunger strikes every Tuesday over the past 12 months.
Executions under Iran’s clerical regime are entirely political in nature and purpose. Ali Khamenei uses them as a tool to instill fear and prevent public protests and uprisings. Over the six months since Pezeshkian’s appointment, at least 783 prisoners have been executed.
More than 3,000 parliamentarians, mayors, and political, religious, and cultural figures from 78 countries have signed a joint statement urging the international community to take decisive action to halt executions in Iran. The statement notes: “Iranian authorities are using these executions for political purposes, seeking to instill fear and terror to prevent the potential outbreak of uprisings by the Iranian people. Thus, any execution carried out under the ruling theocracy should be recognized as political in nature. Unfortunately, on the global stage, the lack of response to ongoing suppression, massacres, and executions over previous decades has emboldened the clerical regime to persist in its suppression and torture, particularly through executions. … we endorse and support Maryam Rajavi’s call to end executions in Iran and her steadfast commitment to abolishing the death penalty, as outlined in her Ten-Point Plan for Iran’s future over the past 2 decades.”
In May and June 2022, the Security and Counterterrorism Committee of the NCRI (SNCRI) disclosed confidential documents of the Iran regime’s judiciary. According to these documents:
5,370 prisoners are on death row or sentenced to Qisas (retribution) in Iranian prisons. (SNCRI statement, 16 May 2022)
As of July 2020, the regime’s prison organization housed inmates in 267 prisons, detention centers, camps, and juvenile correction facilities. Additionally, the State Security Force (SSF) maintains 159 detention centers, and the Ministry of Intelligence operates 147 separate facilities, a total of 579 prisons and detention centers. These figures do not include the prisons under the IRGC’s control.
In 277 prisons, inmate numbers vastly exceed “nominal capacity.” For instance, Tabriz Prison has a “nominal capacity” of 1,500, but there are 2,600 beds and 3,788 inmates—2.5 times its nominal capacity. In a Sanandaj prison, the “nominal capacity” is 290, with 651 beds and 978 inmates—3.37 times the nominal capacity.
Many prisons are over 50 years old and severely dilapidated.
Approximately 600,000 people enter Iran’s prisons annually, affecting over 2 million family members who face significant challenges and problems.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the ‘No to Execution Tuesdays’ campaign as a symbol of the determination and resilience of individuals who, even in captivity, refuse to remain silent in the face of oppression and have turned prisons into another arena of resistance and struggle. The international community must condition its relations with this regime on the cessation of executions and torture and hold its leaders accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide.”
