At the same time as the activation of United Nations sanctions, the Iranian regime’s judiciary used its repetitive trick of linking opposition members to Israel, sentencing two political prisoners to death and two others to a total of 26 years in prison.
The head of the judiciary in Alborz Province, without naming names, announced: “The preliminary ruling in the case of a four-member spy network linked to Mossad and the Monafeqin [the regime’s derogatory term for the MEK opposition] in Karaj has been issued, and the court sentenced two defendants to death and imprisonment, and two other defendants to prison… the total prison term handed down to the defendants exceeds 26 years.” (Mizan News Agency, September 27)
Nine Months of Uncertainty for Four Political Prisoners in Iran
The names of those arrested in May 2025, one month before the 12-day war, had already been submitted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to the United Nations and human rights organizations.
Hamed Validi, a 45-year-old civil engineer, and Nima Shahi, a 38-year-old technical worker from Karaj, were arrested on May 13 in Tehran along with their relatives and subjected to interrogation and torture. Any claim of their connection to Mossad is outright false and reflects the regime’s desperation and its severe need to fabricate such lies against its opposition.
On May 27, the Iran Human Rights Society announced that more than 20 days after the simultaneous arrest of 15-year-old Elina Validi along with her parents, Hamed Validi and Fatemeh, the Validi family still had no information about the fate or whereabouts of the teenager. Elina’s mother, Fatemeh, is being held in inhumane conditions in quarantine at Fardis Prison in Karaj and is deprived of the basic rights of a prisoner, including phone calls, family visits, and access to financial and hygienic facilities.
In this regard, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a statement, in which it called on “the High Commissioner, the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran, the International Fact-Finding Mission, and other human rights bodies to take immediate action to save the lives of political prisoners Hamed Validi and Nima Shahi and to refer this case to the International Fact-Finding Mission.”
