Ghezel Hesar Political Prisoners Back the “No to Executions” Hunger Strike by 1,500 Death-Row Prisoners
18-October-2025
Category: Prisoners
18 October 2025
News group: Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement – Standing up to the execution machinery binds society together. On the sixth day of the hunger strike by prisoners in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison, a group of political prisoners at Ghezel Hesar issued a statement supporting and expressing solidarity with the striking inmates.
The latest wave of executions, like a fresh wound on society’s body, shows how the right to life is trampled by state decisions. The outcry of Ghezel Hesar prisoners and their families is not merely a plea to save a few condemned individuals; it is a call to defend universal human-rights principles and to remember that execution is not a social remedy but a form of state violence that does not address the roots of problems. Today, national and international solidarity with those condemned and on hunger strike—and the clear demand to stop executions—are more necessary than ever, because safeguarding human dignity and prohibiting the death penalty are the foundations of any justice-seeking society.
Full text of the statement by Ghezel Hesar political prisoners:
“This October has so far, with around 200 executions, been the bloodiest month for prisoners on death row. It is no coincidence that prisoners in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar have resorted to protest and hunger strike in the face of this wave of executions: their friends are taken in groups each day to the gallows, and in such an atmosphere they await their own turn in silence. They have now protested against waiting for death and are calling on the world to stand with them.
The state committed the highest number of executions on the World Day ‘Against the Death Penalty’. This shows it places little value on international covenants and feels no concern about global reactions. For us prisoners, this matters greatly, because beyond waiting and hoping, we have no support other than other prisoners and our compatriots.
These executions and crackdowns—after successive government failures and the loss of ‘strategic depth’ in the region (which officials once said, if lost, would mean fighting in Iran’s streets)—have now shifted the confrontation inside prisons, leading to the mass killing of prisoners so that repression and executions within prisons prevent protests from spilling onto the streets. Lacking solutions to people’s rightful demands, the authorities see their only path in sacrificing innocent prisoners to frighten the public and deter any protest or uprising.
The people of Iran know well that these executions do not target only the condemned and the imprisoned, but the whole of society. Teachers and workers, nurses and pensioners have openly carried ‘No to executions’ slogans and placards even in their labour protests, declaring: ‘Do not try to frighten us with the execution of prisoners before our very eyes.’ The savage numbers make clear that executions reflect the government’s inability to answer people’s demands, and serve as a lever to prevent the expansion of labour and other protests and their transformation into nationwide uprisings. Therefore, opposition to the death penalty must be placed at the top of the people’s demands.
We, a group of political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar, while supporting and praising the courage of the striking prisoners of Ghezel Hesar and their families, look with hope to the people and families to amplify their cry for justice by every possible means.”