Dozens of Evin Prisoners Protest Death Sentences for 6 Political Prisoners

Dozens of political prisoners in Evin Prison issued a statement protesting the death sentences for six political prisoners. In the statement from 40 political prisoners incarcerated in Evin, the nationwide protests in Iran, which erupted in response to the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police in September 2022, are referred to as the 'Uprising of 2022.' It states that these protests have 'shaken the foundations of the established government to such an extent that it sees no option but to intensify repression in various forms.' They pointed to the 'exponential trend' of issuing and executing multiple death sentences for political prisoners over the past two years, which the statement emphasizes is 'reminiscent of governmental repressions in the 1980s,' assessing it as a sign of 'fear and panic among political elites regarding the advancing rights-seeking society of Iran.' Regarding the issuance of death sentences for six political prisoners, they added that these sentences were issued while a group of young people from this land also faced death sentences in a case known as the Ekbatan children. According to the statement, in addition to these death sentences, since the beginning of this year, other political prisoners such as Pakhshan Azizi, Varisheh Moradi, Shahryar Bayat, Behrouz Ehsani, Mehdi Hasani, and Mohammad Javad Vafaee Sani have also faced death sentences. The signatories of the statement declared their 'fundamental opposition to the principle of capital punishment' and expressed their support for all political and ideological prisoners facing the death penalty, stating: 'Freedom-seeking struggles require collective solidarity in defense of human rights standards, including the formation of social resistance against the issuance of death sentences.' They called for protests from various social sectors against 'the issuance of such inhumane and reactionary sentences.' This statement was signed by individuals including Shiva Ismaili, Reza Akbari-Monfared, Golrokh Iraei, Maryam Bano Nasiri, Yadi Bahari, Sakineh Parvaneh, Hossein Peiri, Forough Taghipour, Mohammad Habibi, Mehran Raouf, Reza Rezaei, Davood Razavi, Khosrow Rahnama, Khashayar Safidi, Maziar Sidenajad, Hossein Shanbehzadeh, Hossein Shahsavari, and Zahra Safaei. Other signatories include Moloud Safaei, Sepehr Ziaei, Fatemeh Ziaei-Azad, Marzieh Farsi, Foad Fathi, Nasrollah Fallahi, Elaheh Fooladi, Azar Koorvandi, Ismail Gerami, Narges Mohammadi, Amir Hossein Moradi, Babak Moradi, Ali Mozi, Farzad Moazemi-Goodarzi, Mohammad Masoud Moieni, Javad Manbari, Mohammad Najafi, Tahereh Noori, Asadollah Hadi, Maryam Yahyavi, Ali Younesi, and Mir Youssef Younesi. An informed source in Iran told the Persian section of Voice of America on Saturday, December 1, that Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court has issued death sentences for six political prisoners held in Evin Prison, and two other political prisoners have also been sentenced to imprisonment and exile. According to this informed source, based on the sentences issued by Judge Iman Afshari, the six political prisoners named Akbar Daneshvar Kar, Seyed Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi Bistouni, Vahid Bani Amiri, and Seyed Abolhassan Montazeri have been sentenced to death on charges of 'baghi' through membership in the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. The Iran Human Rights Organization announced on Wednesday that in the past month, at least 144 individuals, including 12 Afghan citizens, 4 women, one Jewish-Iranian citizen, and one person with a mental disability, were executed in various prisons across Iran. This human rights organization pointed out that thus, in the past month, an average of more than four death sentences have been executed daily. According to this report, 'under the shadow of regional tensions and the global community's attention to the crises in the Middle East, the Iranian government has significantly increased the number of executions.' The Iran Human Rights Organization once again called for the attention of the Iranian people and the global community to the issue of executions and emphasized the need for opposition and pressure on the Islamic Republic to stop executions. Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, the director of this organization, also stated that with at least 310 executions in the past two months, the Islamic Republic has initiated 'the most extensive wave of executions in the past two decades in Iranian prisons.'