In a forceful statement issued from Qezel-Hesar Prison, a group of political prisoners has condemned the Iranian governments increasing reliance on executions as a tool of repression. The statement specifically denounces the recent Supreme Court decision upholding death sentences for three political prisoners—Pakhshan Azizi, Behrouz Ehsani, and Mehdi Hassani—and calls for urgent international action to save their lives.
The political prisoners, who include Saeed Masouri, Sepehr Emam Jomeh, Mohammad Shafei, Meysam Dehbanzadeh, and Loghman Aminpour, highlight the regime’s use of capital punishment to suppress dissent and intimidate Iranian society. Despite these efforts, they emphasize the resilience and defiance of those resisting oppression, including the three condemned individuals, who were active in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign—a grassroots movement to halt state-sanctioned killings.
The Death Sentences and Broader Context
The Supreme Court recently upheld the death sentences of Ehsani and Hassani on charges of “rebellion,” “waging war against God” (moharebeh), and affiliation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a group banned by the Iranian government. These charges are frequently used by Iranian authorities to target political activists. Pakhshan Azizi, faces similar accusations.
This development comes amid reports of more than 50 other political prisoners currently on death row in Iran, as the regime intensifies its crackdown on dissent.
The statement attributes these actions to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing him of orchestrating a campaign of state-sanctioned killings to suppress an increasingly restive population.
The statement warns that such measures are losing their effectiveness, describing Iran as “a powder keg” ready to ignite. It emphasizes the symbolic power of those standing at the gallows, whose courage challenges the regime’s grip on power.
Calling on both Iranian citizens and international organizations, the prisoners urge a united effort to save the lives of Azizi, Ehsani, and Hassani and to end the regime’s systematic use of the death penalty as a tool of repression.
The prisoners specifically appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, and other human rights organizations to take immediate action.
Full text of the statement:
Once again, the decrepit and decaying regime, nearing the brink of collapse, resorts to increased executions and massacres in an attempt to intimidate the tormented society into submission and regression. The latest evidence of this is the Supreme Court’s approval of the death sentences for three political prisoners, Pakhshan Azizi, Behrouz Ehsani, and Mehdi Hassani. Meanwhile, more than 50 other political and ideological prisoners remain on death row.
The criminal Supreme Leader, under whose approval, supervision, and essentially direct orders all executions are carried out, believes that through a wave of killings and executions, he can frighten the tormented people into silence. However, this ultimate and primary tool of repression—execution—is no longer a remedy for his incurable plight. Just as we have witnessed the resilience of parents at the graves of their loved ones, we now see the spirit of those standing at the gallows. Notably, these three political prisoners sentenced to death were part of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign to save death-row prisoners. This signifies that even executions have lost their effectiveness and may instead ignite the powder keg of an explosive Iran, setting fire to the Supreme Leader’s cloak and the entire hollow regime.
Despite all this, we, the political prisoners in Qezel-Hesar Prison, while condemning these death sentences, call upon our fellow free-spirited compatriots to use all available resources and urge all international and human rights organizations, particularly the UN Human Rights Council and the Special Rapporteur, to take immediate action to save the lives of these three political prisoners.
The statement is signed by the following political prisoners in Qezel-Hesar Prison:
- Saeed Masouri
- Sepehr Emam Jomeh
- Mohammad Shafei
- Meysam Dehbanzadeh
- Loghman Aminpour
January 2025
