On this World Day Against the Death Penalty, we honor the courageous men and women executed by the Iranian regime, the world’s leading executioner. These individuals have paid the ultimate price for standing up for freedom and human rights. Today is an opportunity to express our outrage against a regime that holds the global record for executions, accounting for 74% of those carried out worldwide last year, with women disproportionately among its victims.
The Iranian regime is notorious for its mass political prisoner executions—the largest since World War II—and for its violent suppression of public protests. In November 2019, the regime killed at least 1,500 young people in an uprising and murdered another 750 during the 2022 protests. The driving force behind these atrocities is the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, which serves as a command center for terrorism, repression, and executions. Since the installation of Khamenei’s new president in August, the regime has executed 267 individuals.
Internal documents, exposed by the (NCRI), reveal that over 5,000 prisoners in Iran are currently awaiting execution. For the last four decades, executions have targeted various groups, including political dissidents, ethnic minorities, and religious followers. This week, seven more political prisoners have gone on trial. These actions reflect the regime’s fear of losing control and its effort to suppress any threat to its rule.
International bodies, including the United Nations, have condemned the Iranian regime’s actions. In a report published this July, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran called for holding Khamenei and other high-ranking officials accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide. Despite the global outcry, Western governments have long granted impunity to these executioners, allowing their regime to continue its campaign of terror without facing significant consequences.
It is incomprehensible that the world, which claims to reject the death penalty and human rights abuses, continues to tolerate Iran’s record of executions and massacres. The regime’s export of terrorism and fundamentalism is part of its broader survival strategy, stoking conflict in the Middle East to avoid facing internal uprisings. For four decades, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, has declared that the regime is the root cause of terrorism in the region. His warnings have largely been ignored by the international community, resulting in the loss of millions of innocent lives.
Today, it is more urgent than ever to support the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the regime and to recognize the NCRI as a viable democratic alternative. Holding the regime accountable for its crimes is essential for global peace and stability. We must unite in demanding that European countries take immediate action: condition diplomatic and trade relations on the cessation of executions, designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, and expel regime agents operating abroad.
On this day, we remember the political prisoners who risk everything for freedom, and we reaffirm our commitment to building an Iran free from torture, executions, and dictatorship.