From the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now
Can You Condemn Monstrous U.S.-Israeli War on Iran Yet Excuse Political Arrests and Executions by Iran’s Repressive Regime?
April 13, 2026
Revcom.us editors’ note: We received the following from the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC). Translations from Farsi to English are mechanical translations edited by IEC volunteers.
Introductory Note: This article was written on April 11, amid the start of shaky negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, marked by military moves and threats.
Even as people inside Iran struggle to deal with the enormous destruction and loss of life from U.S./Israeli bombs, under constant fear that the attacks may resume at any moment, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) continues to arrest hundreds of people on charges of “spying for foreign enemies” and to threaten faster and more widespread executions.
On Tuesday April 7, as residents of Iran’s capital Tehran jammed highways fleeing Trump’s threat to kill their whole civilization that night, the head of Iran’s judiciary chief Ejei chose this moment to make a televised address to the nation’s senior judicial officials. “You need to speed up the issuing of sentences for executions and the confiscation of property,” he told them. “It is necessary to continue issuing judicial verdicts for elements and agents of the aggressor enemy with greater speed.”
The IRI hanged ten political prisoners at Ghezel Hesar Prison between March 30 and April 5, and refused to release their bodies for mourning.1 At least four more political prisoners are in solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar, which is often a step in preparation for execution. Graphic: IEC.
“Greater speed”? In the week before this demand, the IRI hanged at least 10 political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar prison. Four were young protesters falsely accused of setting fire to a Basij (paramilitary) base in Tehran during the mass uprising in early January. During the “trial” which lasted only 30 days, the judge ignored overwhelming evidence in their defense, and their cases were still under appeal to Iran’s Supreme Court.2
In the current complex situation where military moves and bluster continue from both sides, the questions remain: while repression by the IRI can in no way compare to the war crimes of the U.S./Israelis against the people of Iran, why demand that people in Iran pick their poison? Is there another way forward that is liberatory, that leads to freedom from oppression and exploitation?
Iran’s people and especially its prisoners continue to find themselves caught between two blades of a scissors, as one ex-prisoner described it. The crimes committed by one “blade” are used as justification by the other: the U.S. and Israel commit massive war crimes, citing the IRI’s massacre of protesters, while the IRI labels people’s opposition with the catch-all charge of “sedition”. It’s the logic of one atrocity deserves another, a symbiotic macabre dance of death terrorizing Iran’s 93 million people.
There are daily reports of more activists being dragged from their homes by IRI police forces, such as the arrest on April 1 of prominent defense lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose location is still unknown. She has been on medical furlough but was previously sentenced to 38 years and 148 lashes (whipping) for her defense of women who rebelled against the forced hijab (head covering). Her activist husband, Reza Khandan, has been jailed in Evin prison since December 2024 for campaigning against Iran’s death penalty and the forced hijab.
Left: Side-by-side signs from a March 7 march in Finland against both US/Israel war and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Photo: @nowaroniranfi. Right: Sign carried in a march in Berlin, March 7. Photo: social media
On March 31, guards assaulted prisoners in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj (outside the capital of Tehran), the birthplace and political hub of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” prisoners’ hunger strike. They beat and violently removed at least 22 prisoners from the ward which housed political prisoners. Without warning, they executed two of the six prisoners convicted in the same court case. The remaining four were executed in the next few days. Their families have not been allowed to reclaim their bodies for burial. Yet even in the conditions of a near-total internet blackout in which they are unable to issue their weekly statement, the courageous hunger strikers conveyed that they are continuing their protest strike, now in its 115th consecutive week in 56 prisons across Iran.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Revolution Books NYC (@revbooksnyc)