Iran Executes Dissidents in Escalating Crackdown on Uprising Activists

In a new escalation that reflects the depth of the Iranian regime’s fear of renewed popular uprising, authorities in Iran executed two brave dissidents, Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, by hanging on Sunday, April 5, 2026.

Their execution came only days after a series of other killings targeting members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and young activists associated with the January uprising.

According to the regime’s judiciary, Biglari and Vahedparast were accused of planning an attack on a weapons depot linked to a military site in Tehran. The authorities also claimed that in January they had taken part in attacking, damaging, and setting fire to a military-sensitive location, and had attempted to gain access to its weapons storage. The judiciary further alleged that several “enemy elements” had sought during the January uprising to storm military sites and seize arms and equipment for use against the regime.

Yet far from justifying the executions, these official statements reveal what the regime fears most at this stage: a generation of young Iranians that no longer limits itself to protest, but increasingly sees the overthrow of the regime as a direct and legitimate objective. These executions are part of a wider campaign of systematic repression against anyone suspected of connection to the uprising or to the Iranian Resistance, especially the PMOI/MEK.

The killing of Biglari and Vahedparast carries added significance because both men had been transferred to solitary confinement on March 31, 2026, along with the young dissident Amir Hossein Hatami and two others, Ali Fahim and Abolfazl Salehi. Their death sentences were issued by Branch 15 of the so-called Revolutionary Court in Tehran, under Judge Abolqasem Salavati, one of the regime’s most notorious judicial figures.

These latest executions follow several bloody days in which other members of the PMOI/MEK were also put to death. Among them were Vahid Bani Amerian and Abolhassan Montazer, who were executed on April 4, 2026, in Ghezel Hesar Prison. They joined Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, and Pouya Ghabadi, all executed in the preceding days. Earlier, the regime had also executed 18-year-old Amir Hossein Hatami, described by the Resistance as one of the young faces of the January uprising.

What has unfolded over recent days can only be understood as an intensified political execution campaign, carried out by the regime under the cover of external war and regional tension. Facing mounting internal crises—from public anger to economic collapse and political fragmentation—the regime appears to be using wartime conditions as an opportunity to eliminate its most determined opponents, especially members of the PMOI and young rebels linked to the uprising.

These developments underline a central reality: the regime’s principal enemy is not abroad, but inside Iran itself. While official rhetoric speaks of external confrontation, the repeated executions reveal that the regime’s real battle is with the Iranian people and with all those who carry the banner of resistance and change. In that sense, the gallows have become part of the regime’s survival strategy rather than instruments of justice.

The speed and scale of these executions also point to a deeper sense of panic. The regime seems increasingly fearful that public rage could once again erupt into a broader uprising, especially in a time of regional instability. By hanging dissidents in rapid succession, it seeks to terrorize society—but in doing so, it also exposes its own fragility and inability to govern by anything other than violence.

At the end of this report, we reproduce Maryam Rajavi’s message as issued:

“The barbaric execution of the two heroic rebels, Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, is nothing but conclusive proof of the mullahs’ regime’s collapse in the face of the people’s anger, and a manifestation of its dread of the spark of uprising that will inevitably bring down its pillars.

The escalating criminal executions of heroic PMOI members and rebellious youth in the midst of a foreign war is an explicit admission that the regime’s main enemy is the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance.

But this blood unjustly shed will not be in vain; its echo will resound in the arms of their comrades among freedom fighters and rebellious youth, who will uproot the theocratic regime from the soil of Iran forever.

Once again, I call on the international community to condemn these serial executions and demand urgent and binding action by the UN Security Council to stop arbitrary executions and save the lives of PMOI prisoners, activists, and rebellious youth who are under death sentence throughout Iran.”