More than 1,000 French mayors have signed a joint declaration urging the immediate cessation of executions in Iran, citing the alarming surge in death sentences under Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration. The statement, published with the support of the Committee of French Mayors for a Democratic Iran and the Committee for the Support of Human Rights in Iran, expresses grave concern over what it calls a “politically motivated use of the death penalty to instill fear and suppress dissent.”

The mayors explicitly backed Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s call for the abolition of capital punishment and referenced her Ten-Point Plan, which advocates for justice, democracy, and the end of executions in a future free Iran.

“In Iran, executions are not just acts of punishment—they are instruments of repression,” the statement warns, citing the execution of protester Reza Rasaei, arrested during the November 2022 protests in Shahriar, as a stark example.

The declaration also referenced findings by UN Special Rapporteur Professor Javaid Rehman, who described the regime’s treatment of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)—including mass executions, torture, and inhumane acts—as crimes against humanity and potentially acts of genocide.

According to Amnesty International, the Iranian regime was responsible for over 64% of all recorded executions worldwide last year—a figure that has increased further since the current government took office.

Since January 2024, political prisoners in Iran have staged weekly hunger strikes every Tuesday as part of a grassroots campaign titled “Tuesdays for No to Execution,” amplifying internal resistance to the regime’s escalating brutality.

The French mayors’ appeal calls on the international community to take coordinated action to stop the wave of executions and end impunity for Tehran’s systematic use of capital punishment as a political weapon.