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 Ministry of Intelligence and for Pahlavi’s torturous SAVAK, people like us have always been accused of “terrorism,” “disrupting national security,” “rebellion,” and the like. I do not value these accusations one bit. In fact, the more charges you level, the more certain we become of our path.
But the “charge” for which I have been sentenced to death, and in which I take pride, is being a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This is an organization that has stood by its word for 60 years through suffering, torture, and blood. It has pledged to snatch the fate of the people from the clutches of despotism and dependency, even if it takes using claws and teeth. It aims to bring the struggle that began with the Constitutional Revolution to its destination: the transfer of power to the people of Iran and the realization of a Democratic Republic, with honesty, honor, and selfless sacrifice, and with 120,000 martyrs.
This is an organization that has never paid ransom to anyone and never will. This is its alternative: Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan, which calls for the abolition of the death penalty, the separation of religion and state, and more. I am proud to be a small part of a resistance that belongs to the world of action and paying the price, not the world of social media, showing off, and wave-riding. Its leader is a woman, Maryam Rajavi, who terrifies you deeply. She is your nightmare. Filled with the pain and suffering of the people, she stands atop the highest peaks of responsibility and sacrifice.
Listen well to her commitment: “Our roadmap has been and remains this: If reaching freedom requires passing through seven stages of suppression, prison, and execution; if it requires passing through seven stages of accusations, demonization, and betrayal; if it requires passing through seventy trials and tribulations—then yes, in the battle for freedom, we are ready for hundreds more.”
Question 3: What is your final defense?
My response to the regime’s executioners is this: Should I defend myself, or should you? It is you who must appear in a fair people’s court on the day after your overthrow to answer for every single crime you have committed over these years. Of course, in a court where your clerical “Sharia” has no place, you will have the right to a lawyer and a public trial. You should fear that day of reckoning, both in this world and the hereafter.
But if you ask me personally, I have no defense for myself. I defend my oppressed people. I seek justice for all my dear brothers and sisters whose blood you spilled during the uprisings—from Khodanour, Kumar, and Rozbeh to Aylar, Hadis, Sarina, and the endless line of the best children of this land.
Question 4: Will you not repent?
Right here, I announce with a loud voice: I will not haggle with you over my life for the freedom of Iran. I wrote my last will on the first day and kept it under my head. I have resolved to sacrifice my emotions for my dearest ones for the sake of these people, every day and every hour, even more than my life. I have no fear.
If I, my generation, and my friends in various prisons are receiving death sentences… If we do not pay this price, the next generations will have to pay a much higher cost. So, if I am to repent, I ask God for forgiveness for all those days and hours when I had my head buried in my personal life.
My final word to you executioners is this: You possess the same evil nature as those from the 1988 massacre. If the price of staying alive is renouncing the name of a “Mojahed-e Khalq,” then shame on such a life. Let that life be yours.
Salute to the noble people of Iran. I swear by the blood of my comrades: I will stand until the end.