Berliner Tageblatt - Iran executes two more members of exiled opposition: group

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

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

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," said Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, director of Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights.

He warned 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 wrote on X.

"Their only 'crime' was their commitment to freedom and the liberation of their people," she added.

The judiciary's Mizan Online website said the two men were "members of a spy network linked to Mossad", Israel's intelligence agency.

They were convicted of the capital offence of "moharebeh", meaning waging war against God, as well as "collaboration with hostile groups and the Zionist regime", Mizan said.

The NCRI described the accusations against the men as "absurd".

Iran is the world's second most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups based outside the country, which accuse the Islamic republic of using capital punishment as a tool to instill fear throughout society.

Iranian authorities executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, the highest number since 1989, IHR and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said in a joint report last week.

With a new round looming in Islamabad of possible talks between the US and Iran, Amiry Moghaddam added: "A complete halt to all executions and the release of political prisoners must be a central demand in any agreement with the Islamic republic."

M.Odermatt--BTB