Less than three weeks after the start of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, a wave of executions of political prisoners began with the hanging of an Iranian Swedish dual national, Kourosh Keyvani, on charges of espionage. He was executed on March 18, two days before the Iranian New Year (Nowruz).
One day later, the day before Nowruz, three detainees from the nationwide January protests in Qom—Mehdi Ghasemi, Saleh Mahmoudi, and Saeed Davoodi—were executed.
With the start of the Nowruz holidays, the execution machine did not stop. On March 30, while cities continued to be bombarded and people were spending Nowruz holidays without internet and satellite access under a rain of bombs and missiles, two political prisoners and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi and Ali Akbar Daneshvar, were executed. One day later, two other members of this organization, Pouya Ghobadi and Babak Alipour, were also executed.
The death machine did not pause even on Sizdah Be-dar (April 2); Amirhossein Hatami, another youth arrested during the January protests, was hanged.
On April 4, Vahid Bani-Amirian and Abolhassan Montazar, two other members of the PMOI/MEK, were executed. On April 5, Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, and on April 6, Ali Fahim, all arrested during the January protests, were hanged.
Currently, at least dozens of protesters and political opponents face the threat of execution. These individuals include protesters arrested during the January protests, those whose cases have been ongoing since the 2022 protests, individuals arrested for links with Kurdish parties or the PMOI/MEK facing vague and illegal charges such as moharebeh (waging war against God), baghi (rebellion), and “corruption on Earth,” as well as those accused of espionage in cases filled with torture and violations of fair trial principles.
About ten days before the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, Amnesty International warned in a statement that at least 30 prisoners connected to the January protests were at risk of execution, two of whom were under 18 years old.
“Iran’s regime’s ‘therapeutic killings’ and ‘execution therapy.'”
What does this insistence on killing mean, under bombings and missile attacks, in the middle of a war that has set the region on fire, and at a time when, according to all analysts, Iran’s regime is in its weakest political and economic position?
The acceleration of executions is due to the regime’s fear of society, fearing that the compressed spring of a free society may suddenly be released, as the war has entered more sensitive stages that could cause social explosions similar to past years. Although killings and executions have always existed in Iran’s regime, these days they carry a specific meaning.
This intensification of executions is aimed at controlling society. Given that regime officials operate while the people are under bombardment and society is highly agitated, with calls for fundamental change louder than ever, the authorities use repression tools—and above all, execution as a weapon to consolidate their power, instill fear, and deepen despair in a society simultaneously under bombardment and deadly suppression.
As noted, of the 14 people executed for political reasons since the start of the war, six were members of the PMOI/MEK. In 1988, Iran’s regime executed 30,000 members of this organization within a few weeks.
Since the beginning of the Iranian regime’s rule, 72 UN General Assembly resolutions condemning human rights violations in Iran and 17 UN Human Rights Council resolutions have been issued.
The latest UN Human Rights Council resolution on the suppression of opponents in Iran was issued in January 2026, following the bloody crackdown on the January protests. In the UN General Assembly, the most recent resolution condemning widespread human rights violations in Iran was approved by majority vote in December 2025.
We are facing a regime that uses executions and the elimination of opponents to consolidate power and extend its survival. Therefore, it is willing to eliminate human beings at any cost to silence dissent and spread deep despair in society. When a government uses capital punishment to instill terror—while people are simultaneously under bombardment—it becomes entirely clear that the right to life and the most basic principles of humanity hold no value for the authorities in Iran’s regime.
