Some political prisoners announce hunger strike in protest against death sentence for Sharifeh Mohammadi

Political prisoners involved in the "Tuesdays Against Execution" campaign issued a statement declaring that the lack of participation of most citizens in the Islamic Republic's voting to determine a successor to Raisi is a "delegitimization of the Velayat-e-Faqih regime." They described the issuance of a death sentence for Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor activist, as "shameless" and announced that they would go on a hunger strike in several prisons on Tuesday. The statement from the members of the "Black Tuesdays" or "Tuesdays Against Execution" campaign, sent to Voice of America on Monday, July 9, reads: "Greetings to the noble and freedom-seeking people of Iran. Your recent epic in 'delegitimizing' the Velayat-e-Faqih regime was so immense that Khamenei was forced to temporarily forget your power and aggregate participation rates in two rounds of elections." The statement emphasizes that "there is no doubt about the fraud in the announced statistics" and adds: "In prisons, despite threats and bribery of ordinary prisoners, based on observations, the decisive boycott has succeeded." Members of the "Tuesdays Against Execution" campaign, on the verge of their twenty-fourth week of hunger strike against the "inhumane issuance and execution of death sentences," called for public support, stating: "An examination of the behavior of the regime's repressive apparatus in past years has shown that whenever a magnificent display of the majority of the Iranian people against the ruling minority has emerged, the regime's repression machine has become more active, using the tool of 'execution' to instill fear and create intimidation among the people to prevent uprisings and political and social protests against tyranny." They added: "We predict that the repressive apparatus of the Islamic Republic, just as it reduced executions to the extent possible before the 'elections' spectacle, will accelerate the issuance and execution of death sentences after this humiliating juncture and will increase repression against the families of the victims even more." The signatories of this statement deemed the issuance of a death sentence for Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor activist, as "shameless" and considered the arrest of Rana Kukur, the sister of political prisoner Mojahid Kukur who is under a death sentence, as "assessable in this context" and a sign of the intensification of gross human rights violations and the right to life by the regime. They added: "We, the prisoners of the 'Tuesdays Against Execution' campaign in Evin Prison (women's ward, 4, 6, 8), Qezel Hesar (units 3 and 4), Khorramabad, Central Karaj, Tabriz, Khoy, Naqdeh, Saqqez, and Mashhad, will go on hunger strike tomorrow, Tuesday, July 10, for the twenty-fourth week in opposition to the issued death sentences, especially the shameless and disgraceful death sentence for Sharifeh Mohammadi." The statement notes that one of the "false accusations" attributed to Sharifeh Mohammadi was "distributing anti-execution flyers" and states: "The effort to stop the execution machine is not only not a crime but should become a public demand." The statement warns of the consequences of the Islamic Republic's indifference to the issue of executions in Iran and calls on "parties, groups, political and professional currents, and media professionals" to pay more attention to the issue of "execution" and opposition to it in the coming weeks and months. Previously, members of the "Black Tuesdays" campaign had warned about Ali Khamenei's statements regarding the necessity of ignoring human rights principles, deeming it a "serious warning bell." According to the latest report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 834 people were executed in Iran in 2023, indicating a 43% increase in executions. Of all executions in Iran last year, at least 471 cases were related to drug offenses, marking an 84% increase compared to 2022. The report also mentions the execution of offenders under the legal age or juvenile offenders.