The execution of 26-year-old law graduate Mehdi Khanaki marks the latest in a growing wave of executions targeting members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), as Tehran escalates its campaign against political prisoners.
Iran’s judiciary executed Mehdi Khanaki, a 26-year-old political prisoner, law graduate, and member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), in the early hours of July 22, 2026, in Karaj. Khanaki had been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court on charges of membership in the PMOI, collecting and storing weapons, and carrying out what the authorities described as several operations against the state.
Khanaki had been under pursuit by Iranian security forces following the January 2026 nationwide uprising before he was arrested in Karaj on February 10, 2026. According to the Iranian Resistance, information regarding his arrest and the severe torture he allegedly endured while in detention was submitted on March 1, 2026, to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and other international human rights organizations.
According to the judiciary, Khanaki was convicted of membership in the PMOI, collecting and storing military weapons, and conducting what it described as several “revolutionary operations.” The court also ordered the confiscation of his property.
In its statement announcing the execution of Khanaki, the judiciary claimed that security forces recovered five handguns, 90 rounds of ammunition, nine magazines, explosive remote controls, 11 homemade grenades, 12 homemade signal flares, 30 homemade shoulder-fired launcher tubes, high-powered explosive devices and connectors, and significant quantities of bomb-making materials and explosives during the raid that led to Khanaki’s arrest.
The judiciary further claimed in its verdict that technical examinations and forensic analysis of the seized weapons concluded that they had been used in shootings during the January 2026 nationwide protests.
Khanaki’s execution is the latest in a widening campaign against PMOI members. In recent months, Iranian authorities have executed Vahid Bani Amerian, Mohammad Taghavi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Akbar (Shahrokh) Daneshvar Kar, Abolhassan Montazar, Hamed Validi, and Mohammad Masoum-Shahi, all convicted on charges related to membership in the PMOI.
Several other PMOI supporters also remain under sentence of death. On July 1, 2026, Arghavan Fallahi was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court. Zahra Tabari‘s death sentence was recently upheld, while Masoud Jamei, Alireza Mardasi, Farshad Etemadifar, and Reza Abdali are among other PMOI members currently facing execution.
The execution comes amid an unprecedented escalation in the use of capital punishment in Iran. Since the January 2026 nationwide uprising, Iranian authorities have executed at least 22 protesters, alongside a growing number of PMOI members, prompting repeated warnings from international human rights organizations that the death penalty is being used as a tool to suppress political opposition.
Human rights advocates have renewed calls for urgent international action to halt the executions of political prisoners in Iran, warning that the regime’s expanding use of capital punishment is aimed at silencing dissent and intimidating those seeking democratic change.