Statement of the “Tuesdays Against Execution” Campaign: Unity Against Execution and the State Policy of Violence
19-May-2026
Category: Hunger Strike of Political Prisoners
19 May 2026
News Category: Political Prisoners’ Hunger Strike
Breathing in Confinement: The hunger strike of political prisoners participating in the “Tuesdays Against Execution” campaign has reached its one hundred and twenty-first week across 56 prisons nationwide.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, amid the continuing wave of opposition to the death penalty in Iran and the ongoing “Tuesdays Against Execution” campaign in various prisons, political prisoners have stressed in a new statement the necessity of defending the right to life and confronting repressive state policies.
Referring to the continuation of executions and the prevailing security atmosphere in society, the statement describes executions as a tool for instilling fear and maintaining social control, and emphasises the need for unity and the expansion of civil resistance against them.
Full text of the political prisoners’ statement:
No to Execution and the “Tuesdays Against Execution” Campaign: A Necessary Principle for Defending the Right to Life
Continuation of the “Tuesdays Against Execution” campaign in 56 prisons in its one hundred and twenty-first week
For more than two months, Iran’s authoritarian rulers have occupied city streets through their agents and limited supporters, publicly providing weapons training and using children instrumentally in these gatherings, with the intention of institutionalising violence and repression against citizens and protesters.
In the past week, the illegitimate rule of Velayat-e Faqih executed political prisoner and Baloch compatriot Abdoljalil Shahbakhsh in Zahedan Prison. In another criminal act, Mohammad Abbasi, one of those arrested during the January uprising, was executed on charges related to participation in the uprising. This comes while his daughter, Fatemeh Abbasi, has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment and is currently held in Evin Prison.
The ruling dictatorship, fearful of its overthrow, seeks through the issuance and implementation of unjust execution sentences only to create fear and terror in society. Alongside political prisoners, we witness the daily execution of young people on non-political charges.
We have repeatedly stated that execution, regardless of the nature of the accusation, is not merely the implementation of an unjust judicial ruling that deprives a person of the right to life; rather, it is the most important tool of repression and state killing, deeply rooted in the political, class-based, and ideological foundations of the Velayat-e Faqih system. This tool is used to create fear among the people and force the oppressed into submission; but what a futile illusion!
If today the government is hanging young people one after another, it knows very well that these young people have deeply experienced discrimination and are aware of the corruption and systematic plunder within the ruling system. They are executed to spread fear. But the authorities fail to realise that this violence not only does not silence people, but plants the seeds of awareness, resistance, and uprising in their hearts.
We believe that these executions must not be met with submission. The “No to Execution” campaign is a necessary step toward justice, freedom, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination and oppression in the Iran of tomorrow.
Open and practical opposition to execution is a very important measure, a decisive criterion, and the true touchstone for today’s activists.
As part of the broader movement against executions, we in the “Tuesdays Against Execution” campaign call on all political, human rights, labour, and civil activists to unite more strongly in order to stop executions. We also ask workers, teachers, students, and retirees who have thus far been a powerful voice against executions in public spaces to carry our message to the conscience of the international community.
The “Tuesdays Against Execution” campaign, in the hope of a free Iran without repression and executions, and in protest against the issuance and implementation of death sentences in Iran, is on hunger strike on Tuesday, 19 May 2026, in its one hundred and twenty-first week across the following 56 prisons:
Evin Prison (women’s and men’s wards), Ghezel Hesar Prison (Units 2, 3, and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Fardis Prison in Karaj, Greater Tehran Prison, Qarchak Prison, Khorin Prison in Varamin, Choubindar Prison in Qazvin, Ahar Prison, Arak Prison, Langarud Prison in Qom, Khorramabad Prison, Borujerd Prison, Yasuj Prison, Asadabad Prison in Isfahan, Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz (women’s and men’s wards), Nezam Prison in Shiraz, Adelabad Prison in Shiraz (women’s and men’s wards), Firuzabad Prison in Fars, Dehdasht Prison, Zahedan Prison (women’s and men’s wards), Borazjan Prison, Ramhormoz Prison, Behbahan Prison, Bam Prison, Yazd Prison (women’s and men’s wards), Kahnuj Prison, Tabas Prison, Birjand Central Prison, Mashhad Prison, Gorgan Prison, Sabzevar Prison, Gonbad-e Kavus Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Rasht Prison (women’s and men’s wards), Rudsar Prison, Haviq Talesh Prison, Azbarom Prison in Lahijan, Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, Ardabil Prison, Tabriz Prison, Urmia Prison, Salmas Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Miandoab Prison, Mahabad Prison, Bukan Prison, Saqqez Prison, Baneh Prison, Marivan Prison, Sanandaj Prison, Kamyaran Prison, and Ilam Prison.
Week One Hundred and Twenty-One