As it has been outlined in its Ten-Point Plan, the Iranian Resistance has been calling for the abolition  of the death penalty for years. We emphasize on this need and we call on our compatriots to widely protest the implementation of this inhuman punishment.(1)

Our plan for future is an Iran without the death penalty

The Iranian Resistance declared years ago that it calls for the abolition of the death penalty and an end to torture and all forms of rights abuses in Iran.

Our plan is to revive friendship, conciliation and tolerance

Our plan for future is to put an end to the mullahs’ religious decrees. We reject the inhuman penal code and other abusive laws of this regime. We believe Retribution is an inhuman law.
We advocate laws that are based on forgiveness, compassion and humanity.
The Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi ordered the release of thousands of Khomeini’s agents arrested in the battles of the National Liberation Army of Iran –many of whom had committed murder against the PMOI– without the slightest violation of their human rights.
This is a long-standing tradition of the Iranian people’s Resistance.

Our plan for future Iran is to institute an independent Judiciary

Our plan is to defend democratic values, freedom, equality and sanctity of every citizen’s private life.
No one will be arrested arbitrarily; torture is banned; no defendant is deprived of the right to defense and to have access to a defense attorney; the principle of presumption of innocence is respected and no one, especially no woman, will be deprived of having access to justice when subjected to violence, aggression and abuse of her freedoms.

Our plan for Iran’s future is that no one should be denied his/her freedoms, rights or life because of having or not having faith in a particular religion or for abandoning it.
Our plan is for all citizens to enjoy genuine security and equal rights before the law.
We are seeking a new order based on freedom, democracy and equality.
We have chosen to persevere and fight on to let our people enjoy a life in freedom and happiness, so that no youngster under 18 years of age would have to wait death row to reach legal age for execution; so that no mother would ever shed tears of grief for her executed child.
Our motivation for resistance till victory is not spite and revenge but our love for freedom and human rights. This is the philosophy of our endurance.

Death penalty in Iran : a tool of intimidation for the regime

Under the penal code of the regime ruling Iran, a person is recognized as Mohareb (one who wages war on God) for being a member, a supporter or an ally of the PMOI. A Mohareb is punished by the death penalty. Many people have been executed simply for dissent. The struggle for regime change, however, is not considered a crime under Islam or the international law. In contrast, it is considered our people’s fundamental right…
Rights abuses in Iran today target everyone from human rights defenders to women and youths, teachers, etc.

(Discover our viewpoint for women’s rights and freedom in Iran)

Many of our defenseless compatriots are secretly executed in prisons across the country, and several thousands more are on the death row. We think of their anxious parents, spouses and children and how they pass their days and nights. We think of women who sell their kidneys to pay for (the victim’s) blood money and save their husbands from execution.
Rouhani once made it absolutely clear that the executions “are based on divine law or a law passed by the parliament… We are just the executive.” Despite their differences, the ruling mullahs share a common view on executions.

They benefit from executions to preserve their rule…

The aim of the executions : an instrument of oppression in Iran

The sole purpose of the mullahs is to terrorize the society and stifle social protests.
They have turned the killing of people into a daily routine. By carrying out public hangings in front of family members and even children, they crush their hearts, minds and conscience.
Executions, torture, stoning, amputation of limbs and gouging of eyes have been institutionalized and legalized by the clerical regime.
Carrying out the verdicts of Islam is another excuse of the mullahs for executions. However, the medieval “Retributions” law –under the pretext of which the mullahs execute a large number of our compatriots every day—contradicts Islam’s message of mercy and compassion. The dynamism of Islam and the Quran rejects these inhuman verdicts.

The rule and existence of the regime however depend on the death penalty. Otherwise, how could they prevent the outbursts of public rage and people’s increasing protests?

In the absence of the death penalty, what would be the mullahs’ tool for depriving people of their freedoms?

How could they extend their suppression, terror and restrictions to the most private angles of people’s lives? Without the executions, how could the mullahs increase the price of basic goods several folds every day? How could they squander the Iranian people’s revenues and wealth for their wars in the Middle East or plunder and waste them on their luxury lives?
And the question is why is the world silent when political prisoners in Iran are being hanged or tortured to death? Why are teenagers executed in Iran and the world is mute? And why is this savage dictatorship not pressured to at least publish the complete list of those it executes?
Overlooking the human rights and freedoms of the people of Iran is the basic cause of the failure of the West’s policy not only on Iran but on the entire Middle East region.

The only factor in the nuclear agreement which could compel the mullahs to completely withdraw from their ambitions, was conditioning the agreement on respect for the Iranian people’s human rights.
When the mullahs have an open hand in the execution of the Iranian people’s children, they will consequently step up their threats against the Middle East and the world.
I therefore say to western governments: Make your relations with the clerical regime contingent on the end to executions. Refer the dossier of the regime’s 1988 massacre to an international tribunal for prosecution of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, and pressure the mullahs’ regime to release all political prisoners.(2)

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1- Speech to the three-day session of the National Council of Resistance of Iran on the 40th anniversary of its foundation, July 23-26, 2020
2-Speech to the conference in Paris on World Day Against the Death Penalty, October 10, 2015