Announcement of the Central Committee of Komala condemning the execution of prisoners of conscience

The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran has hanged more than 20 political prisoners in one its latest crimes. After two days of silence the regime's judiciary finally said it had hanged, in mass executions, 21 Kurdish political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who were held for years in Rajai Shahr prison. On Monday, the families of these prisoners had been informed to go to prison on Tuesday to meet their loved ones for the last time. At the same time, in a statement it issued on Wednesday, 3rd August, Iran's intelligence ministry announced the imminent execution of 29 prisoners. This vague and indirect news and announcements about the executions clearly show regime’s fear of reaction from the Kurdish people in such cases.

These men were political prisoners, each with more than 6 years in prison and were going to be hanged any time. They had been interrogated and had confessed under torture and many of them retracted their statements later. Their trial like any other trial under the Islamic regime lacked the most basic conditions of a fair trial and their executions at this point had political purposes. The Islamic Republic always keeps a large number of political prisoners and convicts with death sentences in prisons in order to hang them whenever it wants to intimidate the public or send a political message.

The Central Committee of Komala strongly condemns the execution of these political prisoners and prisoners of conscience and sees these executions as a crime. The Islamic Republic needs killing machine to ensure its survival. This machine must be stopped and shattered. If the fight for the abolition of death penalty is something that should be continued always and in all circumstances, but now that the regime is clearly pursuing certain political goals by increasing the number of executions, the importance of this fight has also become much higher.