Prisoner Hunger Strike Enters 124th Week in 56 Iranian Prisons amid Fresh Wave of Death Sentences
Prisoner Hunger Strike Enters 124th Week in 56 Iranian Prisons amid Fresh Wave of Death Sentences
Sanandaj Prison in Kurdistan, western Iran
Written by
Safora Sadidi Mohammadi
The coordinated prison protest campaign known as “No to Executions Tuesdays” entered its 124th consecutive week today, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, against a backdrop of escalating state repression and a sharp rise in capital punishment across Iran. According to a formal statement released by the campaign, political and ideological prisoners across 56 different penitentiaries nationwide have launched a joint hunger strike. This mass protest comes as the Iranian regime’s judiciary intensifies its use of the death penalty, hanging at least 49 individuals since the beginning of Khordad.
The campaign’s weekly briefing highlighted a severe escalation in targeted sentences against political dissidents. In Lakan Prison in Rasht, the judiciary has re-confirmed the death sentence of political prisoner Yaghoub Derakhshan. Fresh capital sentences have also been newly issued for three political prisoners: Yasin Shahbakhsh, Hassan Mosalavi, and Ali Kamali. Furthermore, four political detainees in Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz—Farshad Etemadifar, Alireza Mardasi, Masoud Jamei, and Reza Abdali—face imminent execution, with activists warning that their lives are in immediate danger.
“The members of the ‘No to Executions Tuesdays’ campaign, who have stood against these inhuman executions for the 124th consecutive week and a number of whose members have been executed or placed under prison and security agency pressure in various ways, raise their voices louder than ever and once again in defense of the fundamental right to life; a right that is the source of all human rights, and guarding it is considered a sign of maturity, equality, freedom, and humanity of any society,” the statement read.
For 124 consecutive weeks, political prisoners across Iran have continued #NoDeathPenaltyTuesdays campaign, holding a hunger strike this week in 56 prisons nationwide.
As executions surge and more prisoners face death sentences, these courageous inmates are raising their voices…— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) June 9, 2026
In this week’s communique, the striking prisoners explicitly aligned their movement with recent youth uprisings. The statement noted that in the past week, “conscious students came to the streets in various cities to defend their rights to show that they are fed up with governance policies in the field of education, which are in clear conflict with educational justice.” The campaign endorsed these youths, noting that “undoubtedly the future of Iran will be bright with such passionate individuals.”
“Freedom and justice are the right of every human being,” the prisoners added, “and real justice is achieved not through the path of death and the deprivation of the right to life, but through the path of respect for human rights. Consequently, to attain it from the hands of oppressive and tyrannical rulers, one must fight and resist.”
The weekly hunger strike spans both male and female wards across the country’s most heavily fortified facilities, totaling 56 prisons. In the Tehran and Alborz regions, the strike is active in Evin, Ghezel Hesar, Central Karaj, Fardis Karaj, Greater Tehran, Qarchak, and Khorin in Varamin. In the southern and western provinces, detainees are striking in Sheiban and Sepidar in Ahvaz, Nezam and Adelabad in Shiraz, Firouzabad, Ramhormoz, Behbahan, Zahedan, Sanandaj, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, Kamyaran, Urmia, Salmas, Khoy, Naqadeh, Miandoab, Mahabad, Bukan, Tabriz, Ardabil, Dizelabad in Kermanshah, and Ilam. The movement also extends to northern hubs including Rasht, Roodsar, Havigh in Talesh, Azbaram in Lahijan, Gorgan, Gonbad-e Qabus, and Qaemshahr, alongside facilities in Birjand, Mashhad, Sabzevar, Arak, Langaroud in Qom, Khorramabad, Borujerd, Yasuj, Asadabad and Dastgerd in Isfahan, Dehdasht, Borazjan, Bam, Yazd, Kahnooj, and Tabas.
Five political prisoners in Iran face an imminent risk of execution in Sheiban Prison, Ahvaz.
Masoud Jamei
Alireza Merdasi
Farshad Etemadifar
Reza Abdali
Hassan Maslavi
Their death sentences are tied to alleged support for the PMOI and political activities.
Urgent international… pic.twitter.com/Cn4x9HUpcV— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) June 7, 2026
Human rights organizations warn that Tehran’s accelerated execution rate is a deliberate strategy to instill public fear and suppress domestic dissent. However, the endurance of this campaign signals an organized, unprecedented infrastructure of defiance remaining intact behind prison walls, with striking members urging fellow citizens to “raise their voice of justice-seeking against the issuance and implementation of cruel death sentences and express their protest in the strongest way possible.”