cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53397961
They explicitly back the large-scale rally planned for 20 June 2026 in Paris - the “Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners”
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The signatories – including prominent figures such as President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta (Peace 1996), physicists Pierre Agostini, Alain Aspect, and Barry Barish, economists Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom, and literature laureates Kazuo Ishiguro and Olga Tokarczuk – stress that fundamental rights to life, freedom of expression, fair trial, and freedom from torture are being systematically denied to the Iranian people.
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The statement comes in the wake of massive anti-government protests that erupted in late December 2025 and peaked in January 2026, triggered by severe economic hardship, repression, and long-standing grievances against the theocratic regime.
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Iranian security forces responded with extreme violence. Independent estimates of the death toll during the crackdown vary widely but are devastating: human rights groups such as HRANA documented over 7,000 confirmed deaths (with thousands more under review), while some reports citing medical sources and local officials placed the figure as high as 30,000–36,500 in the worst days of repression, particularly around 8–9 January. The Iranian government officially reported around 3,117 deaths. Tens of thousands were arrested, with over 4,000 detained on security-related charges in the initial wave alone.
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The laureates demand:
- An immediate halt to all political executions.
- The release of political prisoners and detained protesters.
- Unrestricted access for international monitors to detention centres.
- Democratic governments to make the abolition of the death penalty a core condition in all dealings with Iran.
They explicitly back the large-scale rally planned for 20 June 2026 in Paris – the “Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners” – where over 100,000 Iranians and supporters are expected to gather to amplify these demands.
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In European countries and many other democracies around the globe, the death penalty has long been abolished.
Two things can be wrong at the same time. What you are doing amounts to whataboutism. Justifying one crime by another doesn't make sense.
demanding all this WHILE IT'S AT WAR WITH THE GREAT SATAN which is trying its very best to sponsor terrorism inside iran... this is at best tone deaf and just imperialist soft power doing imperialism at worst
One of the best things Europe has ever done. But there are some notable exceptions among those "other democracies", so my question remains. Will they abolish their own death penalty before dealing with Iran? It's the Nobel laureates own standard raised in their urgent call.
Where did I do that? I'm against all death penalty unlike this traitor who cheers the murder of her fellow citizens. She was talking at various parliaments around the world and didn't bother to use her influence to help Iranian people. That's what we a charlatan.
But not all democratic countries though, such as America, which Europe is too cowardly to take on.
I think they're calling out these people's hypocrisy, not making an argument that the executions are okay (which, let's be clear, if they're traitors, especially at this time, they SHOULD be executed). These people have transient morals that crop up when they find it convenient and then disappear when they aren't; their opinions should be considered as valuable as Netanyahu's, someone most democratically elected European governments consider an innocent, little baby.
Honestly don't make excuses for that scum; I'm sure you like to believe the best in people but these dirtbags have had two and a half years to display where they truly stand on human rights and they've picked genocide for the global South. Don't humor them, they're not worth it. You're trying to give them a chance, and good on you for trying to see the best in people, but they're just trying to fool you.
EDIT: heck, for that matter, in these very same democracies, people aren't even allowed to criticize a foreign government: Israel, and they're pretending they're upset with Iran for executing protesters supposedly for merely their political opinions?