Dissidents hack Iran state TV, broadcast call for Khamenei’s death

Channels of Iran’s state television broadcast images Thursday showing the leaders of an exiled dissident group and a graphic demanding the country’s supreme leader be killed, an incident that state TV later described as a hack.

For several seconds, graphics flashed on screen showing the leaders of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and the name of a social media account, which claimed to be a group of hackers who broadcast the message honoring the dissidents.

#BreakingNews #Iran mullahs regime TV Channel 1 was hacked by Iranian defiant youth!
The posters of Iranian resistance leaders (Massoud and @Maryam_Rajavi) were broadcasted. @FoxNews @RadioFarda_ @AFP #MEK #PMOI #NCRI pic.twitter.com/vRvDE3f1uY

— Mitra Motamed (@MitraMotamed) January 27, 2022

The MEK, now largely based in Albania, did not immediately answer telephone calls seeking comment.

The hack represented a major breach of Iranian state television, long believed to controlled and operated by members of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence branches, particularly its hardline Revolutionary Guard. Such an incident hasn’t happened for years.

Update #BreakingNews
Radio Tehran,Radio Eghtesad,& Radio Talawat were also hacked as announced by official press by "PMOI.MEK" resistance
slogans of "Down with Khamenei" Hail to Rajavi were broadcast.
This is a brave move to tear through atmosphere of fear established by regime pic.twitter.com/Lfd5ozySIu

— SAzari (@Sazari2015) January 27, 2022

Iran’s state TV acknowledged the breach as a “hack,” saying the case was “under investigation.”

A clip of the incident showed the faces of MEK leaders Massoud Rajavi and his wife, Maryam Rajavi, suddenly superimposed on the channel’s regular 3 p.m. news programming. A man’s voice chants, “Salute to Rajavi, death to (supreme leader) Khamenei.”

Then, a speech from Rajavi briefly plays over the images. He can be heard saying, “Today, we still honor the time that we declared death to the reactionary. We stood by it…”

Massoud Rajavi hasn’t been seen publicly in nearly two decades and is presumed to have died. Maryam Rajavi now runs the MEK.