Campaign 'Tuesdays No to Execution' Addresses General Assembly: Condemn the Massacre and Executions in Iran

The 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign, consisting of protesting prisoners in 21 prisons across the country, on Tuesday, October 3, issued a statement urging 'representatives of governments at the United Nations and all human rights organizations' to question the 'execution government leader' during his visit to the UN regarding the 'widespread wave of massacres and executions of prisoners.' In this statement, released on the thirty-fifth Tuesday of the hunger strike of these prisoners, it emphasized the necessity of condemning the Islamic Republic at the UN countries' meeting in New York, questioning, 'How can he consider himself the representative of the Iranian people while boycotting the elections and without obtaining the majority vote?' According to the statement, in the past week, two political prisoners named Mehdi Hasani and Behrouz Ehsani, who were arrested during the 2021 protests, were sentenced to death behind closed doors with fabricated charges, violating their right to a fair trial. Additionally, Mohammad Javad Vafaee Sani, a boxer and political prisoner arrested during the November 2019 protests, was sentenced to death for the third time after two previous annulments of his death sentence by the Supreme Court. The death sentence of Hatam Ozdemeer, a Turkish national political prisoner who has been in prison since 2019, was also confirmed after one annulment. This campaign condemned these sentences, emphasizing that many prisoners sentenced to death for drug-related crimes are victims of poverty and harsh living conditions that the government has played a role in creating. The prisoners involved in this campaign stated, 'We believe that these inhumane death sentences, issued in violation of all human rights standards, are solely aimed at creating an atmosphere of terror in society and preventing a new wave of widespread protests and the public's use of the fundamental right to 'protest.' Furthermore, the statement commemorated the beginning of the school year and honored 'the memory of students and teachers who were killed in the Jina uprising,' mentioning the approximately one million children and adolescents who have dropped out of school due to widespread poverty and are forced to work. The 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign, in its thirty-fifth week, on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, is conducting a hunger strike against the inhumane death sentence in 21 different prisons, including Evin Prison (women's section, blocks four and eight), Qezel Hesar (units three and four), Central Karaj Prison, Greater Tehran Prison, Khorramabad, Shiraz, Asadabad Isfahan, Bam, Mashhad, Qaem Shahr, Lakan Rasht, Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Khoy, Naqdeh, Salmas, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, and Kamyaran. This statement called on the people and all domestic and international human rights activists to support the striking prisoners of the 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign in defending the 'right to life' of prisoners and abolishing the death penalty. The execution of at least six prisoners coincided with the hunger strike of the prisoners in the 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign in Shiraz and Golestan. Political prisoners in Qezel Hesar commemorated the second anniversary of Mahsa's death: 'Khamenei, you will be buried under the ground.' More than 20 independent Iranian women's organizations: the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement has entered a new phase. Participating prisoners in the 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign: we must resist against religious tyranny. The execution of four prisoners in Tabriz; three non-Iranians among those executed.