Iran’s regime continues to intensify its campaign against people associated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The regime’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of political prisoner Manouchehr Fallah, while security forces have arrested Ali Alipour, father of executed PMOI member Babak Alipour.
Together, the cases show how regime authorities are using death sentences and arrests of relatives to exert pressure on organized opposition and its supporters.
Manouchehr Fallah faces imminent execution
Political prisoner Manouchehr Fallah faces an immediate threat to his life after the regime’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on a charge of membership in the PMOI. His case has been transferred to the Implementation of Verdicts Office in Rasht, the stage at which the ruling can be carried out.
Fallah was sentenced to death in February 2025 by Branch Two of the Revolutionary Court in Rasht, presided over by Mohammad Ali Darvish Goftar. The Supreme Court subsequently referred his case to another branch for review.
In May 2026, Ahmad Darvish Goftar, the father of the judge who issued the original sentence, again sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court’s latest decision confirms that ruling.
The repeated rulings, culminating in referral for enforcement, have left Fallah facing the possibility of execution at any time.
Years of imprisonment and judicial persecution
Fallah was arrested at in Rasht in June 2023 and imprisoned in Lakan Prison. His imprisonment has been marked by prolonged legal uncertainty. In 2024, he went on hunger strike to protest his unresolved status and continued detention.
The authorities had previously sentenced him to imprisonment over accusations of insulting supreme leader Ali Khamenei and spreading propaganda against the regime.
In a separate proceeding, he was tried by videoconference in December 2024 on a charge of moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” over alleged damage to security and judicial buildings. He was denied access to a lawyer during those proceedings.
Ali Alipour arrested as pressure on his family continues
The crackdown has also reached the family of executed PMOI member Babak Alipour. On October 20, at around 8 a.m., security forces arrested his father, Ali Alipour, at the family’s home in Rasht and transferred him to the Shohada-e Gomnam detention center. Officers confiscated the family’s mobile phones and electronic devices.
Babak’s brother Rouzbeh has been detained since early 2026. The latest report places him in Ward 37, Unit 3 of Ghezel Hesar Prison. Earlier PMOI reporting described severe beatings and injuries during his detention, including fractures to his hands and legs, along with denial of medical treatment.
The arrests extend further through the family. Babak’s mother, Omolbanin Dehghan, and sister, Maryam, were detained earlier in 2026.
The authorities denied the family a final meeting with Babak before his execution and have refused to return his body or disclose his burial location.
Babak Alipour: A legacy of resistance and defiance
Babak Alipour, a 34-year-old law graduate and PMOI member, was executed on March 31, 2026, alongside fellow political prisoner Pouya Ghobadi in Ghezel Hesar Prison.
He had faced repeated arrests since 2018 and was arrested again in January 2024. He subsequently faced trial with other prisoners accused of association with the PMOI.
In a letter written in December 2025, after his death sentence had been confirmed, Babak remained defiant. He expressed his conviction that the executions would not intimidate young Iranians, writing that “our execution will not intimidate the youth.”
Escalating repression reflects the regime’s weakness
The two cases form part of a larger crackdown. On October 11, the NCRI released the names of 12 recently detained PMOI supporters and relatives.
Their arrests illustrate how persecution extends beyond individual activists to their families and across generations.
The escalation of executions and arrests is not evidence of political confidence. It exposes a regime fearful of organized resistance and the possibility that public anger will erupt into renewed protests. By targeting relatives and withholding executed prisoners’ remains, the authorities seek to silence demands for justice.
The international community must respond with urgent action: stop Manouchehr Fallah’s execution, secure the release of Ali and Rouzbeh Alipour and other detained relatives, and press for an international fact-finding mission to visit Iran’s prisons and meet political prisoners on death row.