1,500 death-row prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison launched a major hunger strike and sit-in on July 13, 2026, demanding an immediate halt to executions (especially for drug-related charges) and protesting the regime’s reliance on state-sanctioned killing to maintain power.

The protest has spread outside the prison, with over 500 family members demonstrating in solidarity, facing violent crackdowns from security forces, while inmates endure severe health deterioration and communication blackouts.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is calling on the UN and international human rights bodies to intervene urgently, support the strikers, and send a fact-finding mission to Iran’s prisons to address the humanitarian crisis.

On Sunday, July 19, 2026, a massive and courageous act of defiance inside one of Iran’s most notorious dungeons reached a critical milestone. A sweeping hunger strike and sit-in by 1,500 death-row prisoners in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj entered its seventh day. The strike represents a direct challenge to the clerical regime’s survival strategy of state-sanctioned murder.

Following the massive nationwide uprisings of December 2025 to January 2026 that brought the regime to its knees, and the subsequent death of Ali Khamenei in a February airstrike, newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has heavily relied on the gallows to maintain their fragile........

© Eurasia Review