Dastgerd Prison Joins “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign, Expanding Movement Across Iranian Prisons Amid Wave of Executions
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign has expanded its hunger strike to include inmates in 25 Iranian prisons, with Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan joining at the start of this week’s action, intensifying the demand for an end to the death penalty. On Tuesday, November 12, 2024, prisoners across 25 facilities continued their coordinated protest against what they describe as state-sanctioned execution policies meant to suppress dissent.
Since last Tuesday, Iranian authorities have executed at least 39 individuals, averaging over five executions per day. Among those recently executed was a woman, along with three individuals of Baluchi compatriots. Additionally, on Sunday, November 10, Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, sentenced Kurdish political prisoner Varisheh Moradi to death. Following this announcement, a group of female political prisoners in Evin Prison held a protest, chanting slogans against Moradi’s execution sentence on the evening of November 10.
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign has issued a statement marking the 42nd week of its activism, highlighting the addition of Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan to the movement. The campaign denounces what it describes as “hostage-taking of women, religious minorities, and ethnic groups through death sentences”. It condemns the increasing number of executions in Iran, which it says are meant to suppress dissent. The campaign expressed solidarity with the families of victims of the 2019 November protests, in which more than 1,500 Iranians lost their lives.
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign issued the following statement on the 42nd week of this campaign.
“The Joining of Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan in the 42nd Week of the ‘No to Execution Tuesdays’ Campaign
Expansion of the campaign to 25 prisons across the country;
Hostage-taking of women, religious minorities, and ethnic groups through the issuance of death sentences.
On the verge of the fifth anniversary of the bloody November 2019 Uprising, we honor the memory of over 1,500 women, men, young people, and children who lost their lives in the protests and salute the resilience of their families in their quest for justice, despite the oppression of the tyrannical regime.
The grim shadow of executions looms over prisoners in the dark cells of the fascist regime of the Supreme Leader. The execution and killing machinery remains active. Since October 22 (the beginning of Iranian month of Aban), the ruling elite in Iran has executed over 103 individuals, including two women, averaging five executions per day. Since the new president Massoud Pezeshkian took office, over 450 individuals have been executed – a grim “achievement” of this administration.
As we’ve witnessed in recent months, the corrupt judiciary has continued to issue and enforce death sentences, recording new statistics of repression.
Recently, two prisoners in Evin and Urmia prisons received inhumane death sentences for alleged political and espionage charges.
Political prisoner Varishe Moradi, a Kurdish woman in Evin Prison, has been sentenced to death on a fabricated charge of “armed rebellion,” while in Urmia, Naser Bakrzadeh received a death sentence on espionage charges from Branch 3 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court. Previously, three others – Idris Ali, Azad Shojaei, and Rasoul Ahmad Mohammad – were sentenced to death by the same branch.
In another oppressive move in Sheiban Prison, Ahvaz, four Arab compatriots – Ali Mojdam, Moein Khanfari, Mohammad Reza Moghaddam, and Adnan Ghobishawei – who were transferred to prison quarantine two weeks ago for imminent execution, are in dire conditions. In protest, three of them are on a hunger strike, their lives at severe risk.
Despite the regime’s frantic issuance and execution of death sentences, prisoners continue to resist and show solidarity. Last week, during the 41st week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign, a group of prisoners in Dastgerd Prison, Isfahan, went on a hunger strike by returning their lunch to join the campaign.
This campaign condemns the issuance of death sentences for fellow citizens such as Varisheh Moradi and Pakhsan Azizi, as well as the dozens of sentences against Kurdish, Baluchi, and Arab citizens and other protesters. It sees these actions, which violate the right to a fair trial, as a form of hostage-taking intended to control the rising wave of public dissent among the disenfranchised. It strongly condemns this “hostage-taking through execution sentences” and calls for collective resistance against this inhumane trend.
In its ongoing efforts to raise awareness, the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign reveals for the first time that in the case of four Baluchi citizens (Aydou Shahbakhsh, Abdolghani Shahbakhsh, Abdolrahim Qanbarzehi, and Soleiman Shahbakhsh), the authorities had previously informed them that “there was nothing in your case, and you would soon be released,” and even briefly released Aydou Shahbakhsh. However, he was later re-arrested and sentenced to death along with the other accused. The irregular handling of this case highlights that these citizens, and all death row prisoners, are effectively held as hostages to instill fear and repression in society. Tragically, their execution orders have been sent to the enforcement branch, and they could be executed at any moment.
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign, which has repeatedly warned about the risk of executions, once again calls on all conscientious individuals, political and civil activists, human rights defenders, and others for whom this issue is vital to work to save the lives of those on death row in Iran and to stop and abolish executions. We emphasize that only through active advocacy, solidarity, and collective action can the Republic of Executions’ killing machine be halted.
On Tuesday, November 12, 2024, in the 42nd week of the campaign, members of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign will be on a hunger strike across 25 prisons.
The striking prisoners include those in the following prisons:
Evin (Women’s Ward, Wards 4 and 8), Ghezel Hesar (Units 3 and 4), Karaj Central, Greater Tehran, Arak, Khorramabad, Esfahan’s Asadabad, Sheiban Ahvaz, Shiraz Military, Bam, Kahnuj, Mashhad, Qaemshahr, Lakan Rasht (Men’s and Women’s Wards), Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Salmas, Khoy, Naqadeh, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, Kamyaran, and Dastgerd, Isfahan.
“No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign
Tuesday, November 12, 2024”
