During the 16th week of the hunger strike as part of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, prisoners issued a statement protesting the transfer of two prisoners of conscience facing imminent execution.
On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, participants in the campaign released the following statement:
“The brutality inflicted by the torturers of Khosrow Besharat in Qezel-Hesar Prison surpasses even the cruelty of Nazi agents at Auschwitz.”
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This statement underscores the inhumane treatment within Iran’s prisons and highlights the dire situation of political prisoners.
We are holding the 16th week of the ” No to Execution Tuesdays ” campaign while two political prisoners of conscience, Khosro Besharat and Kamran Sheikheh, have been transferred to solitary confinement in Unit 3 of Qezel-Hesar Prison for 14 and 10 days, respectively, to carry out their inhumane death sentences.
Dear compatriots,
Fourteen days of solitary confinement for Khosrow means hearing the morning call to prayer fourteen times, each time imagining himself with a noose around his neck, bidding farewell to life—as if he had been hanged fourteen times.
History records that the agents of the Nazi fascist regime in Germany, unlike the judicial and security authorities of the Islamic Republic, sent innocent Jews to baths in the Auschwitz camp without revealing their intent to kill them. They executed their victims by releasing poisonous gas in the showers.
In other words, the victims of Auschwitz, unlike Khosrow, Kamran, Farhad, Mohammad, and the thousands of prisoners executed by the Islamic Republic, did not face the horrific torture of “waiting to be executed.” And every awakened conscience will admit that in this regard, the cruelty of Eichmann and his Nazi colleagues in Auschwitz was less than that of the agents of repression and execution in the Islamic Republic.
The Free People of Iran
To prevent the outbreak of a new wave of protests, the repressive apparatus of the Islamic Republic of Iran—representing a small minority compared to you, the proud people of Iran—has resorted to flaunting its power in the streets through the disgraceful morality patrols and in prisons by accelerating the issuance and execution of shameful death sentences.
In the past two months alone, an average of one prisoner has been executed every six hours. Simultaneously, our brave girls and women continue to face brutal suppression in the streets.
Dear people and political, trade union and civil activists
We, the striking prisoners in Qezel-Hesar Prison, Evin Prison (Women’s Ward and Wards 4, 6, and 8), Khorramabad Prison, Karaj Central Prison, Khoy Prison, and Naqadeh Prison, stand in protest against the death sentences of Khosrow Besharat and Kamran Sheikheh. These two prisoners have endured horrific torture and have been deliberately placed in solitary confinement in Qezelhesar Prison for prolonged periods, left in the unbearable limbo of awaiting execution.
We also protest the issuance and finalization of death sentences for others, including beloved figures such as Toomaj Salehi, Mahmoud Mehrabi, Habib and Abbas Driss, Reza Rasai, Mojahed Kourkour, and dozens of our fellow compatriots.
Today, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, we are on a hunger strike to demand an end to this medieval and inhumane practice of executions in Iran.
We humbly call on all of you, dear supporters, to amplify the voices of oppressed prisoners on death row by any means possible. We also urge other prisoners to join the ” No to Execution Tuesdays ” campaign. Together, through collective action, we can more effectively confront the anti-human rights practices of the ruling religious tyranny and bring an end to this inhumane process.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
