Iran executes two opposition members, as judiciary vows ‘no leniency’

Iran has executed two members of opposition group the People’s Mujahedin (MEK), who were convicted of spying for Israel, with the judiciary chief warning of “no leniency.”

Mohammad Masoom Shahi, 38 and also known as Nima, and Hamed Validi, 45, were put to death at dawn in Karaj prison outside Tehran, the MEK’s political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says in a statement.

They were both members of the MEK, which is banned in Iran, it adds.

The hangings were the latest of detainees regarded as political prisoners by rights groups during the war between the Islamic Republic and the United States and Israel.

Since executions resumed in March during the war that erupted on February 28, Iran has executed eight members of the MEK and seven men convicted over protests in January.

“With today’s executions, at least 15 political prisoners have been executed since 19 March,” says Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, director of Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights.

He warns of “further executions of political prisoners and protesters in the coming days and weeks.”

“The two members of the MEK join a growing number of heroic members executed this month under the rule of religious dictatorship,” the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi writes on X.

“Their only ‘crime’ was their commitment to freedom and the liberation of their people,” she adds.