Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Amid criticism from Amnesty International of a “grossly unfair” trial, Iran executed two members of the banned Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) group on charges of attacking civilian infrastructure with homemade missiles, the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency reported on Sunday.
Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani Islamlou, identified as “operational elements” of the MEK, were sentenced to death in September.
The report stated that “the terrorists, in coordination with the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) leadership, built launch pads and hand-held mortars in line with the group’s objectives, and indiscriminately fired the shells at civilians, homes, service and administrative facilities, and educational and charitable centers.”
Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), of which the MEK is the main force, praised the two executed men.
She said: “A salute of reverence to these steadfast mujahideen who, after three years of tireless resistance under torture, pressure and threats, fulfilled their solemn covenant with God and the people with pride and dignity.”
Various accusation
The defendants were charged with “moharebeh” – an Islamic term meaning waging war against God – destroying public property, and “membership in a terrorist organization with the aim of disrupting national security.”
Amnesty International said that Ehsani Eslamlou and Hassani were arrested in 2022 and maintained their innocence during a trial the rights group described as “grossly unfair and marred by allegations of torture and forced confessions.”
“According to informed sources, Iranian intelligence agents interrogated them without the presence of lawyers and subjected them to torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement, to extract self-incriminating statements,” the organization said in January.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the number of people executed in Iran rose to at least 901 by 2024, the highest number since 2015.
The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), known in English as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), was a powerful leftist Islamist group that launched bombing campaigns against the Shah’s government and American targets in the 1970s, but eventually fell out with other factions in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Since then, the MEK has opposed the Islamic Republic, and its leadership in exile has been based in Paris. The United States and the European Union listed it as a terrorist organization until 2012.
