Iran’s “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign has entered its ninety-ninth consecutive week, with imprisoned participants launching coordinated hunger strikes across 55 prisons nationwide on Tuesday, December 16. The campaign coincided with the internationally recognized Day of Reconciliation, underscoring what prisoners describe as the regime’s stark rejection of justice, dialogue, and social healing.
In their latest statement, imprisoned participants draw a direct contrast between the global call for reconciliation and Iran’s accelerating use of executions as a tool of repression. As the statement declares:
“Reconciliation is impossible without truth and justice, and execution is the negation of justice and the absolute denial of any possibility of social reconciliation.”
A Campaign Sustained from Inside Prison Walls
Now nearing two full years, the campaign has continued without interruption for 99 consecutive weeks, representing a rare, coordinated act of resistance from within Iran’s prison system. According to the statement, the initiative constitutes: “A collective effort from inside prisons to defend the right to life and to confront the politics of death.”
Participants stress that the campaign is not symbolic but rooted in the daily reality of executions carried out under opaque and abusive judicial procedures.
NCRI Statement: #Iranian Political Prisoner Javad Vafaei Transferred to Solitary Confinement, Faces Imminent Executionhttps://t.co/1SKUPR3hFg
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) December 7, 2025
Surge in Executions and Systematic Due Process Violations
The statement reports a sharp escalation in executions over the past week. Prisoners state that at least 67 people were executed in a single week, while approximately 271 individuals have been executed since the beginning of the current month.
These executions, the statement emphasizes, are routinely conducted: “Without fair trials, without effective access to independent legal counsel, and in media silence.”
Such practices, prisoners warn, demonstrate that execution has become institutionalized as a method of political and social control, rather than a judicial sanction.
In eleven months of 2025, 1,791 people were executed in Iran, including at least 57 women, the highest in four decades. This year marks one of the most severe periods of human rights repression in recent history. #humanrightsday #stopexecutionsiniran https://t.co/8PC5GtTUn5 pic.twitter.com/xegKB2GzkA
— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) December 10, 2025
New Death Sentences Against Political Prisoners
The campaign highlights several alarming developments involving political detainees. Among them is Ramin Zelleh, a political prisoner held in Naqadeh Prison, who has been sentenced to death by Branch One of the Revolutionary Court in Mahabad on charges of “baghi” (armed rebellion).
In addition, death sentences were reissued by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court against six political prisoners detained in Ghezel Hesar Prison—Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Bani Amerian, Akbar (Shahrokh) Daneshvar-Kar, Mohammad Taghavi, and Abolhassan Montazer—all of whom are members of the No to Execution Tuesdays campaign.
The statement also raises concern over Ehsan Rostami, a well-known figure in Iran’s publishing and book community, who was transferred to solitary confinement in Evin Prison after being charged with “baghi.” Prisoners warn that this move significantly increases the risk of further pressure and the issuance of a death sentence.
December 9—Iran
In tandem with the 98th week of the "No to Executions Tuesdays" campaign, families of political prisoners on death row held rallies, calling for an end to executions.#StopExecutionsInIran pic.twitter.com/gA9oTYKEqu— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) December 9, 2025
Call for International Action and Solidarity
Condemning what it calls the regime’s “accelerated executions and systematic repression,” the No to Execution Tuesdays campaign issues an urgent appeal to Iranian society and the international community. The statement calls on:
“The people of Iran, awakened consciences, and international human rights institutions to be the voice of prisoners sentenced to death, to republish and pursue their cases, and to provide practical and media support to their families.”
Hunger Strike Across 55 Prisons
On Tuesday, December 16, prisoners in 55 prisons—including Evin, Ghezel Hesar, Greater Tehran Prison, Qarchak, Adelabad Shiraz, Zahedan, Urmia, Tabriz, Sanandaj, and dozens of others—participated in a coordinated hunger strike as part of Week 99 of the campaign.
As executions continue at an unprecedented pace, the campaign’s persistence reflects both the severity of the crisis and the determination of imprisoned opponents of capital punishment to resist, even from behind bars, what they describe as a state policy built on death rather than justice.