On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, coinciding with the traditional Iranian festival of Sizdah Bedar, the family of political prisoner Vahid Bani Amerian staged a protest in Sonqor, condemning the death sentences issued against political prisoners in Iran.
Holding pictures of their son and Pouya Ghobadi, another political prisoner sentenced to death, his parents carried handwritten signs demanding the immediate abolition of death sentences for political detainees.
In a video message, the father of political prisoner Vahid Bani Amerian said:
“My dears, we spent Sizdah Bedar of 1404 (April 2, 2025) without you once again, outside the city, weighed down by grief and sorrow—while your death sentences have been issued. Every moment, wherever we are, you are present before our eyes. We held your photos in our hands and said, ‘No to execution.’ We hold onto the hope that this year, death sentences will be abolished once and for all, and that no one, under any accusation, will be condemned to death.”
This protest follows a series of ongoing protests by families of political prisoners. Earlier, on the first Tuesday of the Persian new year 1404, the families of Vahid Bani Amerian and Pouya Ghobadi gathered in front of Evin Prison, displaying pictures of their loved ones and banners reading “No to Execution”, calling for an immediate halt to death sentences.
Additionally, on the last Tuesday of the Persian Year 1403, families, relatives, and friends of these political prisoners staged a protest in Sonqor, denouncing the increasing use of capital punishment against political detainees.
In December 2024, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced six political prisoners—including Vahid Bani Amerian, Pouya Ghobadi, Shahrokh Daneshvarkar, Abolhassan Montazer, Babak Alipour, and Mohammad Taghavi—to execution, imprisonment, and exile.
On January 23, 2025, Amnesty International warned that these prisoners were at imminent risk of execution after being convicted on charges of “rebellion through membership in opposition groups.”
Human rights activists have repeatedly condemned the Iranian regime’s judiciary’s use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression. These protests serve as yet another demonstration of the widespread opposition to the government’s ongoing campaign of executions against political prisoners in Iran.
