As the Iranian regime grapples with its profound fear of collapse, it is desperately accelerating its use of the death penalty against political dissidents. On July 1, 2026, the regime’s judiciary sentenced 25-year-old Arghavan Fallahi, a political prisoner and supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), to death. Issued by Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and presided over by the notorious judge Abolqasem Salavati, the sentence reflects a broader, vicious crackdown aimed at terrorizing a restive society.
https://twitter.com/en_simayazadi/status/2072774705719693377
Arghavan was arrested on January 25, 2025, in the city of Parand. She endured five months of solitary confinement, subjected to brutal physical and psychological torture and interrogation in Ward 241 of Evin Prison, which is controlled by the Judiciary’s Intelligence Protection Unit. After a temporary transfer to solitary confinement in Fashafuyeh Prison following the bombardment of Evin, she is currently held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison. Her family has also been continuously targeted; her father, Nasrollah Fallahi, a political prisoner from the 1980s, is currently serving a five-year sentence in Evin after being arrested in Shiraz on November 4, 2022.
A wave of death sentences
Arghavan’s case is not an isolated incident. In recent months, courts in Rasht have handed down multiple death sentences to PMOI supporters held in Lakan Prison, often utilizing sham video trials without legal representation.
Yaghoub Derakhshan, 51, was recently sentenced to death for the second time on charges of armed rebellion (Baghi). Following an initial death sentence in August 2025 by judge Ahmad Darvish-Goftar, a theatrical retrial led to a second death sentence issued by his son, judge Mohammad Ali Darvish-Goftar, without the presence of a lawyer.
Similarly, Zahra Tabari, a 68-year-old electrical engineer with a Master’s degree in sustainable energy from the University of Borås in Sweden, was once again sentenced to death for PMOI membership. First arrested in June 2022 and sentenced to 18 months, she was rearrested in April 2025. Her latest death sentence was handed down on April 14, 2026, by Mohammad Ali Darvish-Goftar, following a previous ten-minute video trial by his father.
Amin (Peyman) Farahavar, a 38-year-old poet from Gilan, also faces imminent execution after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence for Baghi and Moharebeh (enmity against God) in May 2026. Denied vital medical care for internal bleeding and severe pain from gallbladder surgery complications, Farahavar was initially sentenced in May 2025 without a lawyer present.
Hiding behind the noise of war
These sentences are part of a massive, state-sanctioned murder campaign. Since the start of the recent war, the regime has executed eight PMOI members belonging to the Resistance Units, alongside more than 20 young people who participated in uprisings or fought against the Revolutionary Guards. The chief of the regime’s State Security Force admitted that 6,500 people have been arrested since the war began, specifically noting that 567 of them were connected to the PMOI.
The regime is attempting to mask its weak position and terror of being overthrown behind the noise of war. However, they have no answer for a society that is fully prepared to rise up. Across many Iranian cities, PMOI Resistance Units continue to actively fight the Revolutionary Guards and prepare the ground for the next uprising.
Call for urgent international action
The Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, and all international human rights organizations to take immediate action. Expressions of concern must translate into concrete measures to secure the release of death-row political prisoners.
Furthermore, the Iranian Resistance reiterates its crucial demand for an international fact-finding mission to visit Iranian prisons and meet directly with political prisoners before more lives are taken.