The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi and other prisoners from Tehran’s Evin prison asked the people of Iran this Saturday to adopt “Decisive steps to end unjust killings”, in reference to the death sentences handed down against opponents.
“We, the women of Evin Prison, call on the people of Iran (legal experts, civil society leaders and activists) to actively respond and stop the Islamic Republic from sacrificing lives in its revenge against the movements for freedom and equality,” the prisoners urged in a statement published on Mohammadi’s X account, managed by her family from Paris.
The group of imprisoned women condemned “the Islamic Republic’s increasing use of the death penalty as a tool of political retaliation”.
They warned that more than 42 political prisoners currently facing the imminent threat of execution, including Kurdish activists Varish Moradiy Pakshan Azizboth accused of “armed rebellion against the State.”
When describing “the brutal tactics employed by the regime, including torture and false accusations”, the declaration highlighted the urgent need for a “collective resistance” to protect the movements for freedom and equality in Iran.
In this sense, the prisoners demanded the immediate abolition of all death sentencesemphasizing the urgency of saving lives in the midst of the “government attempts to crush dissent”.
The increase in death sentences has taken place after the Protests sparked by death in custody of Mahsa Aminiin September 2022, which in addition to demanding freedoms, demanded the end of the Islamic Republic for months.
However, the authorities managed to contain the revolts with brutal repression that resulted in some 500 deaths, 22,000 arrested and 10 executed, to date.
The death penalty is legal in Irana country that, however, does not publish official execution data
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have repeatedly denounced the excessive use of the death penalty in Irancriticizing that despite growing international pressure to limit or abolish this practice, the country continues to use it on a regular basis.
From the beginning of this year until the beginning of August, Iranian authorities carried out 345 capital sentencesaccording to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
In 2023, at least 853 people were executed across Iranwhich meant a 48% increase compared to 2022placing the country in second place worldwide.
(With information from EFE)
