Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 23 April 2026: State media reported that Soltan Ali Shirzadi Fakhr, a political prisoner sentenced to death for membership and participation in armed operations by the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in 1988, was executed at an undisclosed location.
He is the ninth political prisoner to be executed for affiliation with the PMOI/MEK in the last month. In addition to these nine political prisoners, eight protesters arrested in relation to the January 2026 protests and two people accused of intelligence espionage for Israel have also been executed since 18 March.
IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated: “Such a high number of executions of political prisoners over such a short period is unprecedented in the past 30 years. As we have previously warned, the Islamic Republic appears to be taking advantage of the war situation to carry out these executions. The international community must respond.”
According to the Judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, a political prisoner named Soltan Ali Shirzadi Fakhr was hanged at an unspecified location on 23 April 2026. He was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court on the charge of moharebeh (enmity against God) through “drawing a weapon with the intent to harm the lives, property, and honour of the people through participation in the Forough Javidan and Chelcheragh operations against the sacred system of the Islamic Republic, membership in the Mojahedin terrorist group, and collaboration with the Zionist regime.”
Soltan Ali Shirzadi Fakhr, who was living in Spain, had reportedly returned to Iran to visit family. While his confessions are cited as evidence of his membership in the group and participation in the aforementioned armed operations, no evidence of collusion with Israel is presented.
This is a rare and highly alarming case of an execution being carried out for alleged participation in armed operations by an opposition group nearly four decades ago. While the authorities have previously targeted returning diaspora members, the contrast with past cases highlights a concerning shift in state practice. For instance, Ali Saber Motlagh, a former PMOI/MEK political prisoner who was acquitted of killing a government official in 1981, was re-arrested upon returning to Iran in 2019. He was retried, sentenced to death, and hanged in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison on 25 November 2023. Whereas the judiciary maintained a degree of caution with Ali Saber by staging a retrial for a specific killing, they are now dispensing with such legal pretexts, choosing instead to execute individuals based solely on their general participation in historical conflicts.