Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has released an exclusive report on Iran’s “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign. This report, based on interviews with the families of political prisoners in Qezel Hesar Prison and a review of published news, provides an analytical look at the conditions of prisoners sentenced to death and the emerging civil movement surrounding it.
A Narrative of Resistance and Courage That Is Spreading
By Shirin Ebadi
Introduction:
This report on the “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign is derived from my interviews with several families of political prisoners in Qezel Hesar Prison and news reports about the campaign. Therefore, this text can be considered an exclusive, firsthand report on the ongoing campaign as it is covered in the media.
Before this, the most significant action against the death penalty occurred in 2013 with the “Step-by-Step Abolition of the Death Penalty” campaign (LEGAM). In the autumn of that year, eight political, civil, and cultural activists called for the campaign, stating: “In a certain future, our educational needs will compel the people of Iran to accept this basic principle: to abandon the execution of criminals and suspects of any kind, replacing it with constructive educational methods.”
Severe security crackdowns on the signatories of this call and the deaths of influential campaign figures such as Simin Behbahani, Fariborz Rais-Dana, and Mohammad Maleki did not hinder the pursuit of this civil demand, and with the joining of figures like Narges Mohammadi, the LEGAM campaign continued. Now, the cry of “No to the Death penalty” has found a new resonance with a campaign originating from within the prisons of the Islamic Republic.
Report on the No to Death Penalty Tuesdays Campaign
On September 3, 2023, the media reported the exile of several political prisoners from Evin Prison to Qezel Hesar Prison, previously known as the largest drug offenders prison in Iran and possibly in the entire West Asia region. However, it did not take long for Qezel Hesar to be recognized in the media and public opinion not as a drug offenders prison but as the main center of resistance against the inhumane punishment of the death penalty.
However, how did this change come about? Less than six months after the exile of political prisoners Jafar Ebrahimi, Ahmad Reza Haeri, Zartosht Ahmadi Ragheb, Reza Salmanzadeh, Saeed Masouri, Hamzeh Savari, Sepehr Imam Jomeh, Meysam Dehban Zadeh, Loghman Aminpour, and Reza Mohammad Hosseini from Evin Prison to Qezel Hesar Prison, despite the pressure and repression following their exile, they formed a campaign titled “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays.” This campaign has now spread to more than 23 prisons across Iran, and on August 28, 2024, 68 Iranian and international human rights organizations issued a significant statement in support of it.
“Ten political prisoners were sent to the security ward cells in Unit Three of Qezel Hesar Prison in the first twenty days of exile. These cells were designated for death row inmates. Additionally, during those twenty days, they interacted with Sunni prisoners, including seven who were executed in the following months. One night, the Sunni prisoners even invited them for dinner, after which the prison authorities completely banned the exiled prisoners from leaving their wards.
After the transfer of the exiled prisoners to Ward 21 in Unit Four of Qezel Hesar, they became aware of the tragedy of drug-related death penalties and their vast scale. Around late November 2023, the death penalty, which had been temporarily halted following the closure of Rajai Shahr Prison and the transfer of its prisoners to Unit Three of Qezel Hesar, resumed, increasing concerns about the possible execution of ideological and other prisoners.
When Ahmad Reza Haeri learned about the transfer of Ghasem Abesteh and other prisoners to solitary confinement for execution, he published an open letter detailing the violation of their rights by judges such as Salavati and Moghiseh. However, the executions continued, and besides Ghasem Abesteh, Davood Abdollahi, and Ayoub Karimi, dozens of other prisoners were executed on drug charges. The ten exiled political prisoners were already trying to take collective action against the death penalties but had not yet formulated a specific plan.”
These were the words of one of the family members of the political prisoners in Qezel Hesar, quoting an imprisoned individual. He continued, “The exiled prisoners in Qezel Hesar were under immense psychological pressure at the time to take action against this execution machine. People like Saeed Masouri, Hamzeh Savari, Loghman Aminpour, Saman Yasin, and others had spent years in Rajai Shahr Prison with some of these executed prisoners, knew them well, and were confident of their innocence. Others had extensive conversations with them during their time in the secure ward. On January 25, Ahmad Reza Haeri wrote a letter to two political and labor organizations (the Reform Front and the Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Associations) and highlighted the violation of fair trial rights for prisoners sentenced to death, stating that ‘the most effective way to counter this inhumane trend is to raise the voice of No to the death penalty.'”
But the turning point of these events occurred in the first week of February: the day when Farhad Salimi, a Kurdish ideological prisoner, and Mohammad Qobadlou, a protester from the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, were suddenly executed along with many drug-related prisoners without any prior announcement of their transfer to solitary confinement. The political prisoners always spoke with drug-related prisoners, urging them to take action to save themselves from execution so that others could also support them.
The main issue for the political prisoners of Qezel Hesar was what to do to counter these executions. On Thursday, January 25, 2023, the women’s ward of Evin Prison announced a one-day hunger strike in protest of Mohammad Qobadlou’s execution, and some political prisoners in Qezel Hesar joined them. However, they were thinking of a broader and more fundamental action to support not only political prisoners but also drug-related and other prisoners sentenced to death, as the death penalty was a daily issue for them in Qezel Hesar, where the death penalties took place. As far as I know, Ahmad Reza Haeri and Jafar Ebrahimi first proposed that as long as the executions continued, every week on Wednesdays, they would conduct a collective hunger strike called “Black Wednesdays” and “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays.” This proposal and its acceptance by other political prisoners who signed the initial statement were among the significant milestones of human rights activities within the prison in recent years.”
Regarding the choice of Wednesday for the campaign, another family member of the political prisoners said, “The prisoners are trying to attract the attention of society, human rights activists, and the media to abolish the death penalty through this campaign. They hope to convey the message at both the domestic and international levels that execution is used as a tool of repression against society. Wednesday was chosen for the campaign because it symbolizes the last day of life for prisoners on the verge of the death penalty and signifies resistance against this inhumane punishment.”
Based on an analysis of the statements and letters published by political prisoners in Qezel Hesar regarding the “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign, their main demands and the difference from some previous actions are in four points:
- Increased attention to the death penalty of prisoners with non-political crimes.
- Emphasis on collective action for success.
- The necessity of continued and sustained collective action.
- Greater attention to anonymous ideological and political prisoners sentenced to death.
In the following sections, I will continue to review the continuity of this campaign.
. On February 8, 2024, the demands and calls for help from prisoners on death row were published anonymously, as revealing their names would expedite their executions.
The campaign officially began on February 9, 2024, with the announcement of a hunger strike by ten political prisoners in Qezel Hesar Prison.
. On March 1, 2024, two days before the Twelfth Parliamentary Elections, during which Ali Motahari and some reformists presented a list named “Voice of the Nation,” Ahmadreza Haeri published a detailed and documented account of the last Tuesday in the life of a prisoner on death row. This letter gained significant media attention. Around the same time, a public letter by Loqman Aminpour was released, marking the 40th day since the execution of his fellow townsman Farhad Salimi, revealing some of the injustices faced by Farhad and his friends.
. On the night of March 19, 2024, in the seventh week of the campaign, the political prisoners of Qezel Hesar declared in a statement, “Combating the death penalty is only possible through unity and collective action,” and emphasized the continuation of this effort in 2024.
. On May 8, 2024, during the fourteenth week of the campaign, in response to the issuance of Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence, they stated, “Toomaj’s death sentence is the tip of the iceberg of human rights violations in Iran.” This letter was signed by the initial signatories and the imprisoned singer and rapper Saman Yasin, who joined the campaign.
. On May 15, 2024, during the fifteenth week, the campaign reacted to the execution of Khosrow Basharat (a Kurdish political prisoner) by issuing a statement calling his 14 days in solitary confinement and subsequent execution akin to being executed 14 times repeatedly, describing it as brutal cruelty. Saeed Masouri also published an open letter, which caught media attention.
. On May 23, 2024, during the twenty-first week of the campaign, they condemned the “hostage-taking by the Islamic Republic and the Western appeasement regarding human rights violations in Iran” in response to the release of Hamid Nouri.
. With the continuation of these hunger strikes, the number of prisoners joining the “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign increased each week. For instance, on June 4, 2024, seven Sunni prisoners in Ward Three of Qezel Hesar Prison joined the campaign in the eighteenth week of the campaign. These prisoners, whose names were published in the media, all faced the threat of execution.
. On July 2, 2024, in the twenty-third week of the campaign, with the publication of a letter announcing the joining of several political prisoners from Tabriz Prison, the number of prisons whose inmates had joined the “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign reached nine.
. During the twenty-eighth week of the campaign on August 6, 2024, 19 political prisoners from Lakan Rasht Prison and all female political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison joined the campaign in protest against the death sentences of Pakhshan Azizi and Sharifeh Mohammadi, declaring a hunger strike. In the thirty-first week of the campaign, 68 Iranian and international human rights organizations and associations issued a joint statement expressing their unequivocal support for the “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign.
In the thirty-second week, with the joining of Asadabad Prison in Isfahan and Bam Prison in Kerman, the campaign against the death penalty expanded to 21 prisons. In the thirty-fourth week, many human rights and political activists outside Iran issued statements supporting the campaign.
This path, born out of resistance to pressure and oppression, marked by initiative, perseverance, and an emphasis on unity and collective action, continues. The repeated interruption of phone calls, denial of leave for individuals, transfer to security wards, and solitary confinement torture (against Zartosht Ahmadi Ragheb, Ahmadreza Haeri, and Reza Mohammadhosseini), as well as new charges in prison, are part of the government’s reaction to this campaign. For instance, after three interrogations of Ahmadreza Haeri regarding his anti-death penalty letters, a case was opened against him in the first branch of the Karaj Revolutionary Court on charges of propaganda against the regime and spreading falsehoods. Similarly, Zartosht Ahmadi Ragheb was sentenced to another year in prison at the beginning of his exile for sending protest messages from within the prison.
It is worth noting that Jafar Ebrahimi, one of the initial ten signatories, was released from prison on May 8, 2024, after completing his sentence, while the other signatories remain imprisoned.