Prisoners at Iran’s largest jail have sewn their lips shut as hundreds of them joined a mass hunger strike amid a surge in executions over drug offences and charges linked to anti-government protests.
The hunger strike, involving at least ۱,۵۰۰ death row prisoners at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran, began two weeks ago after six men convicted on drug-related charges were transferred to solitary confinement before their possible execution, according to Iranian rights groups.
In a series of videos shared by rights groups in exile, prisoners are seen sitting in a prison hallway, holding placards reading “No to Executions” and chanting “Be our voice”.
In one graphic video, a prisoner addresses the camera to say he is sewing his lips shut because, six days into the hunger strike, no prison official has responded to the protest.
The footage then shows another prisoner off camera using a needle and thread to stitch the man’s lips together. In another video, a prisoner calls for urgent medical help for those whose conditions he says are deteriorating. “The guards will not open the door so we can take them to the prison infirmary,” he says.
The protest is the latest act of defiance in the prisoner-led campaign against executions, which began in January ۲۰۲۴ and has spread across prisons in Iran amid a sharp rise in the use of the death penalty.
According to the Oslo-based non-profit Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), at least ۴۲۴ executions have been carried out this year, with hundreds more on death row. Most executions were handed down in drug-related cases, IHRNGO said.
On Tuesday, officials hanged two men who were convicted of “waging war on God” over the deaths of two police officers during the anti-government protests. Twenty-six people linked to the January protests have been hanged this year.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of IHRNGO, said people sentenced to death for drug offences were among the most marginalised and voiceless prisoners on death row.
“They have become the lowest-cost victims of the Islamic Republic’s execution machine. Last year alone, at least ۷۹۵ people were hanged on drug-related charges, with almost no international reaction and hardly any domestic or social media campaigns to save them. By staging this protest, the prisoners in Ghezel Hesar are taking an extraordinary risk. They know that the authorities can execute them at any moment, yet they have chosen to raise their voices in the hope that the international community will finally hear them and increase the political cost of these executions,” he said.
According to Amnesty International, revolutionary courts, which have jurisdiction over national security and drug-related offences, lack independence and routinely impose harsh sentences, including death sentences, after grossly unfair trials.
In a message relayed to the Guardian, one death-row protester said: “We are prisoners who turned to such mistakes simply to afford the basic necessities of life, and deeply regret our actions. Where else in the world is a human life taken for a first mistake?”
A similar protest was held at the prison in October ۲۰۲۵, when more than ۱,۵۰۰ prisoners went on a six-day hunger strike, leading to a rare visit by authorities. But activists say conditions have not improved since. Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal counselling centre for Iranian activists, said executions continue following unfair trials over drug-related offences.
“In many cases, defendants do not have access to lawyers or a meaningful right to defend themselves. There are also cases in which charges are fabricated against people from ethnic minority or poor backgrounds,” Khazaeli said. “Death sentences issued by the revolutionary courts are a violation of human rights and even Iran’s own laws.”
There has been a huge spike in executions this year amid the war with the US, and families of those on death row and rights groups have raised the alarm over the worsening human rights crisis in the country.
Executions have also surged among political prisoners and protesters arrested after the nationwide protests in January. Many of the death sentences were issued on the basis of confessions extracted under torture, Amiry-Moghaddam said.
“The Islamic Republic has no legitimate justification for using the death penalty for drug offences. It is not required by Islam, and the authorities themselves have repeatedly acknowledged that executions have failed to deter drug trafficking or drug use. On the contrary, both drug trafficking and addiction have continued to rise over the years. Those sentenced to death are rarely major traffickers; they are typically the lowest-ranking couriers, recruited because of poverty for a small payment. Many are convicted solely on the basis of confessions extracted under torture,” he added.
Families of those on death row in Ghezel Hesar have staged protests outside the prison in support of those inside, but sources said authorities violently cracked down on their gathering.
