This year October 10 the World Day Against Death Penalty is launched under the circumstances where death penalty is still carried out in 58 countries around the world and thousands of people in these countries are waiting to be executed. Considering the execution rate to the population, the Islamic regime in Iran tops the states and governments that carry out executions. As a result of people’s fights, 139 countries of the world have already abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.

Death penalty, which is an organized and conscious violence, is carried out by the government to kill and eliminate its political opponents, social dissidents and victims of the state-backed capitalist system. Capital punishment has been used along the history by the ruling classes in order to control the subordinate classes and the oppressed layers of the society. If now the majority of the capitalist countries of the world have abolished death penalty it is due to the fights by the oppressed classes and layers of the society and the freedom loving people.

In those countries where death penalty is still retained, the capitalist governments, in order to deviate the public attention from the true roots of all the social problems and insecurities, introduce death penalty as a treatment for all these insecurities and as a strong reaction to these social problems. However, according to social research experts there is no tangible or reliable evidence that death penalty is capable of preventing or decreasing crimes and social offenses. Instead, researches show that in societies where the gap between the rich and the poor is deep, the extreme poverty and other social deprivations pave the ground for the spread of crimes and offenses.

Historical experience shows that in advanced capitalist systems where the fight by the working class and freedom loving people has imposed some social reforms and welfare programs on the governments, the crime rate has declined dramatically. On the other hand, the experience so far shows the fact that where ever the governments maintain death penalty, the community is more vulnerable and the psychological backgrounds for reproduction and spread of violence and crime is more set.

In Iran, the Islamic republic which tops the world in handing down and executing death sentences, has continued this premeditated crime by relying on its reactionary and medieval Islamic laws and on the justification that the existence of death penalty can prevent crime by creating fear and horror among people; but in fact the regime has always used the death penalty more as a political weapon against the dissident, freedom loving and equality seeking people including its political opponents. Twenty two years ago, during two months of August and September, the Islamic regime with the aim of creating fear in the society committed a big crime, the evidence and tracks of which now bear live witness to the atrocities and ferocity of the regime’s officials and reformists inside the government. During these two months, the crime and killing machine of the Islamic regime including the current reformists sent thousands of prisoners with different political tendencies to the gallows. According to some reports more than 5 thousands militant people lost their lives in this terrible crime for holding different ideas and believes.

The Islamic regime in Iran despite the widespread protests inside and concerns expressed by the international organizations continues issuing and executing death sentences and killing people just to frighten the Iranian people including the political dissidents. Now the fight for the abolition of death penalty is becoming an integral part of the fight for unconditional political liberty and the fight for the immediate release of the political prisoners.

October 10 the World Day Against Death Penalty while being a good opportunity for activists of the abolition of death penalty to show to the public on a wider scale the inhuman and criminal nature of death penalty, it is at the same an opportunity to promote an alternative to a system that reproduces and generates all kind of social crimes and calamities.

There is no doubt that as long as the heinous act of death penalty shadows the progress of civilization, cultural promotion and human altruism, the demand for the abolition of death penalty will remain the main issue of the freedom loving and militant humanity. Let’s make October 10 the World Day Against Death Penalty a turning point for expanding the fight for the abolition of death penalty both inside Iran and all over the globe.

Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran

Long Live Freedom, Equality and Workers’ Government

Long Live Socialism

Central Committee of the Communist Party of Iran
October 5, 2010