The Islamic Republic executed two more people Saturday, as the regime unleashed a new wave of killings over fears of another citizen uprising in the streets of Tehran.
Political prisoners Abolhassan Montazer, a 66-year-old architect, and Vahid Baniamerian, a 33-year-old with a master’s in management, were hanged.
They were convicted of being members of the banned opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran — and came just days after four other members of the group were executed.
“Driven by profound weakness and reeling from its weakening grasp on power following recent nationwide uprisings, the clerical establishment is desperately using the gallows to physically eliminate its organized opposition and terrorize a restless society,” the group said in a statement Saturday.
The executions were the “culmination of a grossly flawed judicial process devoid of any legal legitimacy” the group urged, adding that the tactics included forced confessions and the regime’s state-run media unleashing a barrage of fabricated allegations against the two men in an attempt to justify the political executions.
Montazer and Baniamerian were arrested in January 2024 and sentenced to death after being charged with “armed rebellion” and labeled by the state media as a “terrorist team of the enemy.”
The opposition group remains defiant in the face of the regime.
“These brutal executions will not silence the opposition. Instead, they will only intensify the resolve of Iran’s rebellious youth to overthrow the regime,” it said.
In addition, 18-year-old musician Amirhossein Hatami, who was arrested in January in Tehran during the nationwide protests, was also hanged Thursday.
State media has confirmed 12 executions in Iran so far this year, though Iranian human rights group Hengaw reported evidence of 160 hangings since January.
The executions come on the back of tens of thousands of deaths at the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after it tried to silence dissent when anti-regime protesters took to the streets of Tehran in January over the country’s faltering economy.
More than 7,000 killings of protestors have been confirmed by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, though thousands more are still under investigation.
The death toll could exceed 36,500 people, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
Amnesty International has raised fears of more planned executions in the weeks to come, including protesters arrested during January’s mass demonstrations.
