In tandem with a rising wave of executions targeting supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and rebellious youths, the ruling religious fascism in Iran has dramatically intensified its pressure on political prisoners. The regime is now using forced transfers, inhumane deprivations, and internal exile to systematically torment detainees and their families.
On August 3, 2026, authorities transferred 100 prisoners, mostly ordinary criminals, from Fashafouyeh (Greater Tehran Prison) into the political prisoners’ wards at Evin Prison. This deliberate measure was designed specifically to harass and endanger political inmates. A day prior, on August 2, Afshin Rangriz Heirati, a political prisoner supporting the PMOI, was forcibly moved from Evin’s Ward 2 into a ward housing ordinary criminals.
The psychological and physical torment extends far beyond the capital. In Rasht’s Ziabar Prison, Sattar Babaei, another PMOI supporter, has been held in legal limbo for five months. At the time of his arrest in March 2026, regime agents plundered his personal belongings, looting his mobile phone, laptop, and even his house deeds. Furthermore, the regime has escalated the use of forced exile. On August 3, political prisoner Hojjat Alizadegan was banished from Yazd Prison to Saravan Prison, while Abdolsalam Shahmiri was exiled from Zahedan Prison to Iranshahr Prison.
The regime has even weaponized basic sustenance. In Gonbad-e Qabus Prison, living conditions have reached a critical point. Prison guards provide only one loaf of bread for every three prisoners, and the prison store completely refuses to sell bread. Consequently, the families of these prisoners are forced to endure immense hardship just to bring bread to their loved ones from the outside.
Violent raids and enforced disappearances
These deprivations are paired with brutal physical assaults. On August 1, Evin Prison guards and regime henchmen violently raided the political prisoners’ hall in Ward 7, severely beating the inmates. Despite their injuries and torn clothing, authorities forcibly transferred six prisoners to an unknown location.
The victims of this raid included PMOI supporters Amir Hossein Moradi, Ehsan Rostami, Ramin Rostami, Pejman Toobareh-Rizi, and Mojtaba Taghavi, alongside children’s rights activist Afshin Heyratian. The regime’s deep-seated paranoia and vindictiveness are evident in cases like Taghavi, a 58-year-old sentenced to over six years in prison solely because he is the brother of PMOI martyr Mohammad Taghavi, who was executed earlier this year.
A wider campaign of executions and death sentences
The harassment within prison walls is a prelude to a much darker agenda. Over the past year, the regime has carried out more than 2,400, including 11 PMOI members. On July 22, 2026, the regime hanged Mehdi Khanaki, a 26-year-old law graduate and PMOI member, following a sham trial and months of severe physical and psychological torture. Cruelly, the regime continues to refuse to return the bodies of these executed dissidents to their families.
Meanwhile, death sentences against PMOI supporters are surging. Isa Chari, a 37-year-old laborer and father of two, has been sentenced to death on charges of PMOI membership and is currently held in solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar Prison. In Evin Prison, 22-year-old student Amir Hassan Akbari-Monfared was sentenced to death for “rebellion” solely due to his family ties to PMOI martyrs. Additionally, five political prisoners in Hall 37 of Ghezel Hesar—Abolfazl Rahbar, Omid Rahbar, Vahid Azizi, Mostafa Imani, and Farshid Dolatyari—are facing death threats and heavy sentences of up to 26 years for alleged PMOI ties.
The regime’s fundamental weakness and international responsibility
Operating under the distraction of the fog of war and regional conflicts, Tehran is masking its own fundamental weakness. The clerical dictatorship is terrified of the growing gravitation of Iranian youth toward PMOI Resistance Units and the looming threat of another nationwide uprising. These politically motivated executions and prison raids are systematically designed to breed a climate of terror, laying the groundwork for a massive purge of political prisoners that echoes the horrific 1988 massacre.
The Iranian Resistance strongly condemns this escalating brutality and urges the international community to abandon its silence. The United Nations Human Rights Council and relevant UN Special Rapporteurs must take immediate action to save the lives of those on death row and locate the disappeared Evin prisoners. Furthermore, an international fact-finding mission must urgently visit Iran’s prisons to meet with detainees and halt this relentless machinery of death and torture.