May 6, 2025 – The 67th week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign saw prisoners in 41 prisons across Iran refuse food in protest of the mullahs’ regime’s accelerating use of the death penalty. Launched by inmates as a weekly hunger strike movement, the campaign continues to spotlight the genocidal regime’s weaponization of execution to crush dissent.
According to the campaign’s weekly statement, the past seven days saw 29 people hanged: 15 on April 30 and 9 more on May 4. Since the Persian New Year began on March 21, at least 154 executions have taken place—an alarming escalation.
In a particularly brutal incident, the regime killed a protester named Azim Farkhond in Dezful. He had joined local citizens in opposing the execution of two detainees when security forces shot him with live ammunition. “He is the first martyr of the ‘No to Execution’ campaign since its inception,” the campaign declared. “We honor his memory and reaffirm that this regime will never cease executions while in power.”
The campaign emphasized that the regime’s increasing reliance on executions stems from its political desperation. “Faced with domestic and international deadlock, the regime uses execution as its primary instrument of repression,” the statement read. “It seeks to paralyze protest and forestall public uprisings.”
Calling on the international community to act decisively, the campaign warned: “The death penalty, in the hands of this dictatorship, is more dangerous than any weapon. It is imperative that international human rights organizations pressure their governments to condition relations with Iran on the abolition of executions.”
As the hunger strike continues into its 67th week, the campaign closed with a renewed appeal: “We continue to urge all sectors of society to unite and rise—by any means possible—against the death penalty.”