Execution is not justice; it is systemic revenge. The right to life is unconditional, not a privilege in the hands of rulers
7-October-2025
Category: Hunger Strike of Political Prisoners
7 October 2025
Category: Political prisoners’ hunger strike –
Breathing in Confinement – The 89th week of the “Tuesdays: No to Executions” campaign was held across 52 prisons nationwide on the eve of the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
As the world moves towards abolishing this inhuman punishment, Iran’s regime continues to seek its survival in the shadow of executions. While human rights are founded on the inherent dignity of every person and the right to life is the most fundamental of rights, Iran’s judicial and political system persists in using death as an instrument to intimidate and silence dissent. Execution has no place in the lexicon of justice; history shows it neither eradicates crime nor restores society’s peace. It perpetuates the cycle of violence, deepens social wounds, and ultimately ensnares those who wield it.
These days, the memories of lives taken—freedom-seekers and defenceless yet steadfast political prisoners—are not only reminders of suffering and courage but a call to awaken our collective conscience. The “Tuesdays: No to Executions” campaign is the echo of that conscience: a human voice against structural injustice. Today more than ever, opposing the death penalty is not just a legal position but a moral and human duty—a duty to protect life, freedom, and human dignity.
Statement by political prisoners
We begin the 89th week of the “Tuesdays: No to Executions” campaign on the eve of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, as the international community strives for complete abolition—or at least a substantial reduction—of capital punishment. In Iran, however, not only has the death penalty not been abolished or reduced, but the ruling system breaks new records of brutality and execution day after day.
On Saturday, 4 October, six Arab political prisoners—Ali Mojaddam, Mohammad-Reza Moghaddam, Moein Khanfari, Habib Deris, Adnan Ghabishavi, Seyyed-Salem Mousavi—and the Kurdish political prisoner Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh were executed. On the same day, the death sentence of political prisoner Mohammad-Javad Vafaee-Sani was upheld by the Supreme Court for the third time.
The number of executions over the past year—from 1 October 2024 to today—has reached 1,695. Since the start of 1404 (20 March 2025), 957 people have been executed in just six and a half months. We must acknowledge that we are unaware of many executions; the real figures are likely far higher. This is only a portion of the crimes of the execution-driven state.
According to a recent report by Amnesty International, by the end of December 2024, 113 countries had completely removed the death penalty from their laws, and 145 countries had halted executions in law or practice. In Iran, however, the shadow of death grows darker by the day.
We all know that in Iran, execution is not merely a punishment; it is a tool for intimidation and terror in a society on the brink. In the eyes of this government, every protest and every protester must be cowed with execution and imprisonment. That is why today “No to Executions” is among the common slogans of all protesters—teachers, pensioners, workers, and students.
Finally, we congratulate all dear teachers on World Teachers’ Day and honour the memory of Sammad Behrangi and Farzad Kamangar—teachers who taught lessons of freedom and equality in Iran’s history and ultimately gave their lives for it.
We in the “Tuesdays: No to Executions” campaign, affirming that the death penalty brings neither justice nor deterrence and only institutionalises violence, call on all awakened consciences—civil activists, writers, artists, teachers, pensioners, and workers—to raise their voices louder against executions so that the principal instrument of repression and suffocation is taken from this execution-driven state. Only then will the path to justice and freedom be cleared.
“Tuesdays: No to Executions” – Tuesday, 7 October 2025
In the 89th week, hunger strikes are ongoing in the following 52 prisons:
Evin; Ghezel Hesar (Units 3 & 4); Karaj Central; Fardis (Karaj); Greater Tehran; Qarchak; Khorin (Varamin); Choubindar (Qazvin); Ahar; Arak; Langeroud (Qom); Khorramabad; Yasuj; Asadabad (Isfahan); Dastgerd (Isfahan); Sheyban (Ahvaz); Sepidar (Ahvaz – women’s and men’s wards); Nezam (Shiraz); Adelabad (Shiraz – women’s and men’s wards); Firuzabad (Fars); Dehdasht; Zahedan (women’s ward); Borazjan; Ramhormoz; Behbahan; Bam; Yazd; Kahnuj; Tabas; Mashhad; Sabzevar; Gonbad-e Kavus; Qaemshahr; Rasht (women’s and men’s wards); Rudsar; Haviq (Talesh); Azbarom (Lahijan); Dizelabad (Kermanshah); Ardabil; Tabriz; Urmia; Salmas; Khoy; Naqadeh; Miandoab; Mahabad; Bukan; Saqqez; Baneh; Marivan; Sanandaj; Kamyaran.