In a brutal escalation of state-sanctioned murder, the Iranian regime executed two political prisoners and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), Babak Alipour and Pouya Ghobadi, on the morning of March 31, 2026.
This heinous act comes one day after the regime executed two other PMOI members from the exact same case, Mohammad Taghavi and Ali Akbar (Shahrokh) Daneshvarkar, on March 30. These consecutive executions over a bloody two-day period represent a desperate campaign by a ruling establishment deeply terrified of a growing organized resistance and intent on physically eliminating its opposition.
The regime’s fabricated narrative vs. the reality of the victims
In a desperate bid to justify the killings, the regime’s Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the terrorist Quds Force, branded the executed men as “armed terrorists” of the “Monafeghin” (the regime’s derogatory term for the PMOI). The state media outlet claimed the men participated in armed operations against sensitive centers using “launchers” to overthrow the state, and that Ghobadi was attempting to illegally cross the border to receive training for operations in Tehran.
The people regime calls “terrorists” were highly educated professionals who dedicated their lives to a free Iran. Babak Alipour, 34, was a law graduate, and Pouya Ghobadi, 33, was an electrical engineer. Both had long histories of political imprisonment for their activism. In a joint statement released in December 2024 alongside their co-defendants, the prisoners bravely declared that they would not bargain with their lives. They emphasized that they found “no recourse for justice other than the oppressed people of Iran, the brave Rebellious Youth, and awakened consciences,” adding that their pursuit of justice was “a source of pride.”
Flawed judicial process and unyielding brutality
Following their arrests in early 2024, the victims were subjected to months of severe physical and psychological torture in Evin Prison’s notorious Ward 209. The judicial process that followed was a complete mockery of due process. Their death sentences were issued by the criminal judge Iman Afshari in Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.
During their retrial on November 16, 2025, Afshari blatantly ignored defense lawyers’ insistence that the clients be tried together. Instead, he held separate hearings for each prisoner lasting only a few minutes. Despite the complete lack of evidence and the reliance on forced confessions extracted under torture, the regime’s Supreme Court confirmed the sentences in December 2025.
Critical conditions and brutal raids in Ghezel Hesar prison
The cruelty of the regime was further exposed by the terrifying events inside Ghezel Hesar prison leading up to the executions. On the night of Sunday, March 29, as Taghavi and Daneshvarkar were being transferred for execution, the prison’s anti-riot guards violently raided the political prisoners’ hall in Ward 4.
During the raid, guards brutally beat the prisoners and transferred at least 19 political inmates to solitary confinement. Shockingly, Alipour and Ghobadi, alongside fellow PMOI death-row inmates Vahid Bani-Amerian and Abolhassan Montazer, were among those subjected to this brutal beating just hours before Alipour and Ghobadi were hanged.
Sick prisoners, including Ali Moazzi and Asadollah Hadi, were also forced into solitary confinement. Since the morning of March 30, following the first wave of executions, all communications between the political prisoners in Ward 4 and their families have been entirely cut off, leaving the remaining inmates isolated and in imminent danger.
International condemnation and the ongoing threat to political prisoners
The regime carried out these murders in blatant defiance of widespread international condemnation. Over 150 international experts, Nobel laureates, UN Special Rapporteur Mai Sato, and global human rights groups such as Hands Off Cain, Nouveaux Droits de l’Homme (NDH), and the British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF) had previously demanded an immediate halt to the executions, citing severe human rights violations.
This latest atrocity is part of a broader, systematic campaign of terror against the PMOI that has continued seamlessly under the presidency of Masoud Pezeshkian. In July 2025, the regime executed two other PMOI members, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, who were also tortured in Ward 209 and sentenced by Judge Afshari. The regime’s unabated bloodthirst places a grave and imminent threat on the lives of other political prisoners, particularly Vahid Bani-Amerian, 33, and Abolhassan Montazer, 66—who suffers from severe heart, lung, and kidney diseases—both of whom remain on death row facing the exact same fabricated charges.
Preparing for another massacre under the fog of war
The timing of these executions exposes a paralyzed and fearful regime acting out of profound vulnerability. In December 2025 and January 2026, Iran witnessed massive nationwide uprisings that nearly brought the regime to its knees, forcing the state to maintain its power only through the massacre of thousands of protesters. Now, exploiting the domestic chaos following the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei in a February 28 airstrike, the regime is using the fog of war to eliminate its most capable adversaries.
Driven by the paralyzing fear of yet another popular uprising, the mullahs are actively preparing to carry out a new massive purge of political prisoners to hide their own terminal weakness, mirroring the horrific 1988 massacre.
As the lives of remaining political prisoners hang in the balance, the international community must move past mere verbal condemnations. The UN and global leaders must take concrete, punitive actions to hold the criminal leaders of this regime accountable for their continuous crimes against humanity and immediately intervene to save the lives of those still facing the gallows.
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