The executions carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison between March 30 and April 4, 2026, marked another chapter in the Iranian regime’s long confrontation with organized political opposition. Among those executed were six imprisoned members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK): Vahid Bani Amerian, Mohammad Taghavi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghabadi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, and Abolhassan Montazer.
The six men were members of the PMOI Resistance Units, networks that Iranian authorities have repeatedly targeted in recent years. Their executions followed legal proceedings that the prisoners themselves described as predetermined and rooted in coercion.
In the days following the executions, one voice emerged with particular force: the final recorded statement of Vahid Bani Amerian, a 32-year-old political prisoner sentenced to death. Delivered from inside prison and intended for public release, his testimony offers a rare look into the mindset of a condemned political prisoner confronting execution while insisting on making his defense visible to the public.
“I want to make my defense public,” Bani Amerian said at the opening of his message.
The statement was not framed as an appeal for clemency. Instead, it functioned as a political declaration and a personal account of why he believed resistance had become unavoidable. Speaking directly to “the people of Iran and the world,” he portrayed his imprisonment and sentence as part of a broader campaign aimed at suppressing dissent and preventing the growth of organized opposition.
Throughout the recording, Bani Amerian repeatedly returned to one theme: the refusal to separate personal life from the suffering he said he witnessed around him.
“May that kind of life be forbidden to me if the price of it is stepping on my conscience and closing my eyes to the pain of my people,” he declared in response to what he said was a question posed during his trial about why he had not returned to a “normal life” after a previous imprisonment.
Iran Intensifies Pressure on Families of PMOI Prisoners Amid Expanding Crackdown
Rather than speaking in abstract political slogans, Bani Amerian filled his testimony with scenes drawn from daily life in Iran. He described seeing impoverished Baluchi children “wasting away and dying from scorpion stings” during a period of exile in Bashagard. He recalled child street vendors standing on pedestrian bridges near Khajeh Nasir University and wondered aloud what had become of them years later.
One of the most emotional passages centered on a memory from outside a hospital in Kermanshah. According to his account, a laborer and his wife stood unable to afford surgery for their sick child. The father asked how he could possibly pay for the operation on a worker’s wage, while the mother cried out repeatedly for justice.
“And now you speak to me of a normal life?” he asked.
The statement also offered his account of the judicial process that led to the death sentences. Bani Amerian described the proceedings as “a court that had nothing in common with a real court” and said that he and the other defendants had been subjected to psychological and physical torture from the moment of arrest.
“We were under torture the entire time,” he said, arguing that the outcome of the trial had been determined in advance.
He stated that he and the others refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court, saying their answers during proceedings were intentionally brief because they did not believe the process could deliver justice.
At several points, Bani Amerian directly addressed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accusing the regime of using executions to spread fear and halt political opposition. Yet even while speaking under a death sentence, he insisted that repression would fail to extinguish the movement he identified with.
“Even if you execute me and people like me, we will multiply,” he said. “Even if you hide our bodies.”
Bani Amerian openly identified his support for the PMOI as the central reason behind his sentence and described that affiliation as a source of pride rather than regret. Referring to decades of confrontation between the organization and successive Iranian governments, he praised the group’s history of sacrifice and resistance.
He also referred extensively to Maryam Rajavi and her Ten-Point Plan, citing proposals including the abolition of the death penalty and the separation of religion and state. In his remarks, Rajavi was portrayed not simply as a political leader but as a symbol of endurance and commitment.
His final defense took on a confrontational tone when he reversed the logic of the courtroom itself.
“Am I the one who should defend myself—or are you?” he asked, addressing the judges and authorities responsible for the sentences.
In one of the most striking sections of the testimony, Bani Amerian argued that future accountability would eventually reach those currently in power. He spoke of a future “people’s court” in which officials would answer for years of repression, while emphasizing that even such a court, unlike the one he faced, would allow legal representation and public proceedings.
Despite the political nature of the message, its emotional center remained fixed on ordinary Iranians. Bani Amerian repeatedly returned to the themes of poverty, repression, imprisonment, and lives lost during protests and crackdowns. He invoked the names of young protesters killed during uprisings, describing them as “the finest children of this land.”
Toward the end of the statement, he addressed another question reportedly raised during the proceedings: whether he would repent.
His answer was unequivocal.
“For the freedom of Iran, not only will I not bargain with you over my life,” he said, adding that he had prepared himself for death long before the sentence was carried out.
The recording closed with a pledge that would become one of the defining lines associated with his final message.
“I swear by the blood of my comrades: I will stand firm to the end.”
The execution of Vahid Bani Amerian and the five other PMOI prisoners was intended to bring finality. Yet the circulation of his final statement ensured that his voice would continue beyond the prison walls where it was recorded. In its language, imagery, and defiance, the testimony offered not only the final words of a condemned prisoner, but also a portrait of the convictions that continue to shape organized opposition inside Iran.
