Warning from 'Tuesdays No to Execution'; 'Brutal' Executions on the Anniversary of the November 2019 Uprising

The 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign announced on Tuesday, November 29, in its forty-third week, that in the past week, the Islamic Republic executed 28 people, with 18 executed on November 16 alone. The statement added that since the beginning of November, the number of executions has exceeded 133, including 3 women and 13 Afghan citizens. The authors of the statement warned from prisons across the country that coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the November 2019 protests, the trend of issuing death sentences and carrying out these punishments, especially for young people arrested during the 2022 protests, has intensified, raising concerns about the increase in such inhumane actions. The campaign expressed concern about the situation of six defendants in the Ekhtaban case, stating that last week, these six defendants, including Milad Arman, Alireza Kafayi, Alireza Barmarzpournak, Hossein Naimati, Navid Najaran, and Amir Mohammad Khosh Eghbal, were sentenced to death in a process filled with contradictions and unfairness. It also announced that an anonymous political prisoner named Mohammad Mehdi (M.S.), who was arrested during the nationwide protests of 2022, was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court of Razavi Khorasan. The statement further mentioned that the Iranian government, continuing its executions, executed Ahmad Alizadeh in an inhumane act, twice in Qezel Hesar prison, and hanged another prisoner in public. Additionally, Ghafar Akbari died under torture in the Malekan detention center, and Seyed Alireza Razavi was executed in Qezel Hesar about 20 days ago without informing his family. The campaign has called on the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mai Sato, to take action to save death-row prisoners and hold those responsible for these executions accountable. The public has also been urged to unite and support this campaign to be the voice of prisoners on death row. The statement concluded that while the Iranian government has intensified repression and executions, prisoners in 25 prisons across the country continue to resist, and members of the 'Tuesdays No to Execution' campaign have protested with hunger strikes for 43 consecutive weeks every Tuesday. These prisons include Evin (women's ward and wards 4 and 8), Qezel Hesar (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central, Greater Tehran, Arak, Khorramabad, Dashtgerd and Asadabad in Isfahan, Shiban in Ahvaz, Nezam in Shiraz, Bam, Kahnouj, Mashhad, Qaem Shahr, Lakan in Rasht (men's and women's wards), Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Salmas, Khoy, Naqdeh, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, and Kamyaran. A group of Iranians in Sweden protested against the issuance of death sentences in Iran. The Iranian Writers' Association stated that the government's behavior towards claimants reflects desperation. Political female prisoners in Evin stated that the issuance of death sentences is a reckoning with the people. The Iran Human Rights Campaign called for the formation of a fact-finding committee regarding the November 2019 events.