Iran Regime’s Crackdown on the Resistance Units

The Iranian regime, terrified of the expanding number of the Resistance Units, their growing appeal among the population, especially the younger generation, and the escalation and sophistication of their campaigns, activities, and operations, has allocated enormous resources and mobilised its security forces to confront, curtail, and identify the Resistance Units. 

Moreover, it has unleashed a wave of brutal repression, using mass arrests, disappearances, and infiltration attempts to wipe them out. 

At least 3,626 members were forcibly disappeared during the 2022 uprising and are believed to be imprisoned. At least nine have been sentenced to death, and several others have been executed. 

Yet, despite these immense challenges, the Resistance Units continue to grow in size and influence and remain steadfast in their commitment to freedom. Their resilience exposes the regime’s inability to silence the call for change.

Of course, from time to time, the Intelligence Minister or other security officials have announced the arrest of a few members of the Resistance Units. Then-Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said on 19 April 2019 that 116 teams affiliated to the main opposition People’s Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK) were arrested in the past year. The ministry’s director-general in East Azerbaijan Province said on 22 April 2019 that the MEK’s reach had expanded significantly and that 60 MEK activists were recently arrested in the province.

Nevertheless, none of these measures have succeeded in forestalling the activities of the Resistance Units and their critical role in fomenting, leading, and guiding the popular protests, or targeting the regime’s suppressive agencies. 

Nine Resistance Units Members Sentenced to Death

On 30 November 2024, the Iranian regime’s judiciary sentenced six political prisoners—Abolhassan Montazer, Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Bani-Amerian, Babak Alipour, Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar, and Mohammad Taghavi—to execution following months of interrogation and torture. 

The charges against them include “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK),” “collusion and conspiracy against national security,” “armed rebellion against the government,” “forming a group to disrupt national security,” and “destruction of public property using a launcher.” 

These rulings were issued by Judge Iman Afshari, head of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. The same court also sentenced Mojtaba and Ali Taghavi, brothers of Mohammad Taghavi, to imprisonment and exile.

Abolhassan Montazer, 65, an architecture graduate and a political prisoner from the 1980s, has been arrested and imprisoned multiple times, including in 2018 and 2020. He was last arrested in January 2024.  He suffers from heart, lung, and kidney diseases, and arthritis.

Pouya Ghobadi, 32, an electrical engineer, was arrested in March 2024. He had previously been arrested twice.

Vahid Bani-Amerian, 32, holding a master’s degree in management, was arrested in January 2024. He has spent a total of four years in prison across multiple arrests since 2017.

Babak Alipour, 33, a law graduate, was arrested in January 2024. He had earlier been detained in November 2018 in Rasht and served four years in prison.

Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar, 57, a civil engineer, was arrested in January 2024.

Mohammad Taghavi, 58, a political prisoner from the 1980s and 1990s, was previously arrested in 2020 and imprisoned for three years on charges of association with the PMOI. Taghavi is a survivor of and witness to the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.

Mojtaba and Ali Taghavi were sentenced to imprisonment and internal exile solely because they are the brothers of Mohammad Taghavi.

Photos of the 9 political prisoners sentenced to excution

Three other MEK activists had already been sentenced to death. On 18 September 2024, the clerical regime’s judiciary notified political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaie Sani, a supporter of the MEK, of his death sentence for the third time in Mashhad prison. The so-called Mashhad Revolutionary Court had issued this sentence.  

On 17 September 2024, the regime’s judiciary sentenced two political prisoners, supporters of the MEK, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, to death. This sentence, which was communicated to their lawyer, was issued by judge Iman Afshari of Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. These two political prisoners were convicted on charges of “rebellion, waging war against God, corruption on earth, membership in the PMOI, gathering classified information, and conspiracy against national security.”

In December 2024, a separate death sentence for another activist, Shahab Nadali, was overturned, and he was given a four-year prison term plus five years internal exile.