As the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) approaches the 61st anniversary of its founding on September 6, a wave of statements and letters has emerged from political prisoners held across Iran. Facing severe judicial decisions, physical violence, prolonged isolation, and imminent execution, detainees in Evin, Ghezel Hesar, Yazd, Vakilabad, and Karaj Central prisons have issued messages documenting both their current conditions and their ongoing commitment to resistance.
Escalating Repression and Capital Charges Behind Bars
The physical conditions detailed in the reports underscore the severity of the pressure facing political detainees.
In a message sent from Ghezel Hesar Prison, political prisoner Mehdi Vafaei Sani reflected on the organizational history of the PMOI, which was founded in September 1965 by Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeid Mohsen, and Ali Asghar Badizadegan. Vafaei Sani’s own circumstances illustrate the extreme measures taken by authorities: arrested in June 2022 and sentenced to six years, he was shot and wounded by regime agents during the October 2022 fire and crackdown at Evin Prison.
In September 2025, Intelligence Ministry agents removed Vafaei Sani under the pretext of a family visit to open a new case against him on the charge of moharebeh (enmity against God)—a charge carrying the death penalty—on the grounds that he attempted to save fellow prisoners during the Evin fire. In April 2026, Vafaei Sani and other prisoners were beaten, handcuffed, shackled, blindfolded, and forcibly transferred to Unit 3 of Ghezel Hesar following a memorial service they organized for six recently executed political prisoners.
Despite these measures, Vafaei Sani focused on the emergence of new dissidents inside the prison system who have never been part of the formal organization:
“Most of the supporters and Resistance Units who are in prison, although they have never been within the ranks and collective of the Mojahedin, stand firm and grow with an astonishing resemblance to the Mojahedin’s organizational relations and with a resistance similar to the political prisoners executed in 1988.”
He highlighted the contrast between state power and the commitment of these detainees, noting that while the regime has appropriated “all the information, wealth, media and even the beliefs of the people,” it remains unable to command the level of commitment seen among resistance supporters. He closed his letter with the lines: “I said: This beginning has no end / Love, if it is love, is not easy.”
Death Sentences and Internal Exile in Evin and Yazd
The personal peril facing female political prisoners in Evin and Yazd prisons further highlights the environment in which these messages were written.
In a joint statement from Evin Prison, political prisoners Arghavan Fallahi and Forough Taghipour addressed the anniversary while facing immediate threats to their lives and freedom. Fallahi was sentenced to death on July 1 by Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, a sentence upheld by the Supreme Court on August 25. Taghipour was handed an additional one-year sentence in May simply for issuing a statement from prison for Student Day in 2025. Both women were also denied family visits after participating in the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign by chanting slogans and singing anthems inside the facility.
Iran’s Regime Upholds Death Sentence of Political Prisoner Arghavan Fallahi
Tracing their movement back to the 1965 founders, Fallahi and Taghipour wrote:
“We are of the bloodline of Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeid Mohsen, and Ali Asghar Badizadegan… We are of the generation of those who went to the gallows in 1988… We are Generation Z—against dictatorship and dependency, against the Shah and the mullahs.”
They specifically named four PMOI members executed by the regime in 2026: Babak Alipour and Pouya Ghobadi (executed March 31), Vahid Bani Amerian (executed April 4), and Mehdi Khanaki, a 26-year-old law graduate arrested after the January 2026 uprising and executed on July 22. Directly addressing the state’s reliance on capital punishment, they declared:
“Put us in prison or close our throats with the hangman’s noose; we have become one living spirit that never dies.”
From Yazd Central Prison, Parisa Kamali issued her message while serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence in internal exile. Describing her personal connection to the PMOI, Kamali stated: “If today I stand on the right side of history, I owe it to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran,” adding that the movement “opened my eyes to the realities” and remains “a source of hope.”
Political Prisoner Parisa Kamali Commemorates Martyrs of January Uprising In Defiant Message
Physical Torture and Imminent Executions: Vakilabad, Ghezel Hesar, and Karaj
The severe hardship endured by prisoners is also detailed in messages sent by Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, Meysam Dehbanzadeh, and Mohammad Hassani.
Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a former boxing champion held in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, has been imprisoned since 2020 and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. After two previous death sentences were overturned, he received a third death sentence in September 2024. The Supreme Court upheld this sentence on October 4, 2025, and following the rejection of his retrial request in December, his case was forwarded to the department responsible for executing sentences.
Iran’s Regime Upholds Death Sentence of Political Prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani
Writing from Vakilabad under the immediate threat of execution, he noted that the harsh conditions in prison do not excuse silence:
“In these difficult days that this bloodthirsty and inhuman regime has created for the people of Iran and the region, naturally our conditions in prison, like those of all the people of this land, are hard and difficult. But this is no reason for us to remain silent. Under all circumstances, we have a duty to be the voice of our oppressed people and to cry out their pain and suffering.”
Using the metaphor of a tree planted by the organization’s founders, he added: “Today, more than sixty years after this growth began, this tree has taken root and we have become a forest that no winter and no axe can destroy or silence. Every time they cut off our heads, we grew again and again and multiplied.”
In Ghezel Hesar Prison, Meysam Dehbanzadeh issued a statement from what he termed “the killing ground of Ghezel Hesar.” Dehbanzadeh was shot and seriously wounded during the October 15, 2022 assault on Evin Prison. He was transferred to Gohardasht Prison four days later without receiving medical treatment, before being brought back to Evin for interrogation. Authorities subsequently framed the surviving prisoners for the fire, and in November 2024, Dehbanzadeh was sentenced to an additional eight years and eight months in prison plus 148 lashes, bringing his total sentence to 17 years and four months along with the flogging.
In his message, Dehbanzadeh surveyed 61 years of PMOI history—including the 1988 massacre and the years spent under attack in Camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq—asking: “Can the sun be killed?”
In Karaj Central Prison, Mohammad Hassani, a master’s student imprisoned since January 2020, authored a poem marking the anniversary. Hassani was initially sentenced to three years, but after refusing to cooperate with the Ministry of Intelligence, authorities reopened his case, extending his sentence to 12 years in prison and internal exile. Incorporating the mythical figure of Kaveh the Blacksmith standing against tyrant Zahhak, Hassani wrote: “The turban became that crown / But Kaveh became thousands.”
