Iran NTV Exclusive: Vahid Baniamerian’s Final Defense Against the Regime
Simay Azadi (Iran NTV) – A smuggled video from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison has captured the final, unyielding defiance of Vahid Baniamerian, a 32-year-old member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) known within his unit as Commander Vahid, who was executed on April 4, 2026. Five other PMOI members from the same group on identical charges of supporting the opposition were also execution from March 29 to April 4. In the recording, Baniamerian rejected the legitimacy of the “tribunal that bore no resemblance to a court” that had sentenced him to death, dismissed the regime’s offer of repentance as meaningless, and delivered a stinging indictment of its long history of suppression—reaffirming instead his commitment to a democratic Iran and the 10-point plan of Maryam Rajavi. His words, now a posthumous testament, underscored the resolve of a generation that has come to see personal survival as secondary to the struggle for the nation’s freedom. The Full Remarks of Vahid Baniamerian: Greetings and salutations. I am Vahid Baniamerian, a 32-year-old political prisoner currently under a death sentence. I am very happy to be able to send this message to you—the people of Iran and the world—from behind the bars of Evin Prison. My goal in insisting on the publication of this video, despite all the consequences it may have for me, is to make my defense public. Since this regime knows very well it has no legitimacy, it is terrified of public trials for political prisoners. So, to the “Supreme Leader” who wants to execute us to create fear in society, to stop the movement, and to block the revolution: I want to remind you that I and those like me rose from the blood of freedom-loving youth who, throughout these years, remained nameless. Without many knowing who they were or what they did, or what tortures they endured in your dungeons, they never bowed to you or Khomeini, and thousands upon thousands kissed the gallows. Be certain that if you execute me and my kind, we will only multiply, even if you hide our corpses. And be certain that your regime will have no escape from being overthrown. I, along with five of my friends, was sentenced to death in a tribunal that bore no resemblance to a court. Essentially, the judiciary and the security apparatus in dictatorial and fascist regimes are pillars of suppression and crime, not executors of justice and law. That is why our responses were very short. We do not recognize such an apparatus at all and have nothing to say to it. What I said in court can be summarized in a few sentences: We do not accept the charges you leveled. We were entirely under mental and physical torture throughout the entire process following our arrest. And for a court whose result is predetermined, it makes no difference what answer we give. Please do not trouble yourselves with these formal trials. Based on your Imam’s words, anyone who “stands their ground” is considered “Mahdour-ol-dam” [one whose blood can be shed] and deserves execution. Well, I am standing my ground. That is all. That was our entire trial. But now, I want to publicly announce my response to the four questions raised in this court before the people, addressing the regime directly. Question one: Why didn’t you pursue a normal life after being released from prison? Why are you wasting your youth? My answer to the regime is this: May that life be forbidden to me if the price is stepping on my conscience and closing my eyes to the pain of my people. You have miscalculated. I will neither return to that “normal” life, nor will I allow you and your guards to comfortably continue your lives through plunder, destruction, and the massacre of people. This is the very beauty of life for me: “Life is but belief and struggle” (Innama al-hayat aqida wa jihad). After my previous release from prison, you yourselves exiled me to Bashagard. I saw with my own eyes the innocent Baluchi children perishing in deprived huts [kapars] due to a lack of resources. Should I remain silent while you lounge on the throne of power, living off the people’s pockets and the blood of the youth, continuing your massacres and destruction? Should I focus on my own studies and personal life while millions live below the poverty line, and your warmongering, misogyny, and double oppression against ethnicities and religions continue? Never. Never. Let me be very clear: under a death sentence, I rest my head on my pillow at night not with fear of your gallows, but with the memory of my people’s pain. I think of the bitter fate of those child vendors on the Seyyed Khandan pedestrian bridge who were before my eyes for four whole years. My classmates at K. N. Toosi University probably remember them. Where are they now after 10 years? What are they doing? For what sin? Often, the wails of those poor mothers and fathers echo in my mind and ears, taking sleep from my eyes—like the father in front of the Kermanshah hospital, holding his sick child who needed surgery. They had no money, and the father said in Kurdish: “How can I raise this much money with a worker’s wage? Must I let my child die?” And the mother shrieked: “How can I let my child die? O God! O Justice!” And now you talk to me about a “normal life,” you sellers of religion? You have miscalculated. Let me make it perfectly clear who my role models are. They are the Ashrafis—the ones whose very name terrifies you. Those who gave their youth, their entire lives, and everything they owned for the freedom of the people and the prosperity of this land, from Kurdistan to blood-soaked Baluchestan, and from the marshes of Mahshahr to Azerbaijan and every single city in Iran. Question two: Do you accept the charges? My answer is: Which charges? For the mullahs’ terrorist









