In a chilling escalation under the cover of war, Iran has executed 16 men in the past month, including eight political prisoners and eight protesters, according to human rights groups. Among the victims are Babak Alipour, a 34-year-old law graduate, and Pouya Ghobadi, a 32-year-old electrical engineer, both hanged on 31 March at Ghezel Hesar prison. They were accused of armed rebellion and membership in the opposition People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI).
Testimony from Death Row
Writing from his cell in Rajai Shahr prison, Alipour detailed the fates of fellow inmates, including Behrouz Ehsani, 69, and Mehdi Hassani, 48, a father of three. Despite the executions, Alipour remained defiant. In a smuggled video on 12 March, he condemned the regime, saying, "Dictators have come, been overthrown, died, and been killed, and now it is the turn of Khamenei-the-son’s dictatorship." His brother, sister, and mother were arrested during a vigil outside the prison.
Youngest Victim and Recent Executions
The youngest executed was Amirhossein Hatami, 18, hanged on 2 April after a forced confession to charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) and efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) for an alleged attack on a Revolutionary Guard base. The most recent hanging was Amirali Mirjafari, 24, a student and computer technician, executed on Tuesday. Eleven more political prisoners, aged 23 to 68, remain on death row.
Reza Younesi, a professor at Uppsala University, fears for his brother Ali, 26, and father Yousef, 73, both jailed for alleged PMOI links. Yousef recently disappeared in the prison system before being transferred to the same facility as Ali. "When there is a war, they become even more brutal," Younesi said, citing the regime's use of executions to instill fear.
Unprecedented Executions
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of Iran Human Rights called the number of political executions unprecedented. "The aim is to create fear among people," he said, noting that the war has overshadowed international scrutiny. US President Donald Trump claimed to have persuaded Tehran not to execute eight women, but the regime denied the claim. Trump has not commented on the men executed.
In his final video, Alipour warned that the regime seeks to "display the height of his brutality and repression by increasing the number of executions in order to create fear and terror." He added, "Without a doubt, the day of freedom and happiness for the heroic people of the blasphemous mullahs will come soon."
