The medieval tyranny ruling Iran has once again bared its fangs. The world is witnessing an execution frenzy so furious, so coldly systematic, that it can only be described as state-sponsored butchery. Day after day, the clerical dictatorship drags more innocent men and women to the gallows, desperate to crush the spirit of a nation that has already risen against it. And yet, the international community mutters only the mildest expressions of “concern,” as though these killings were tragic but inevitable acts of nature. They are not. They are deliberate crimes, calculated tools of terror wielded by a regime terrified of its own people. To remain silent is to become complicit.
The latest victims on death row are a heartbreaking portrait of courage. Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, a 29-year-old boxing champion and coach, sentenced to death for “corruption on earth”; Reza Abdali, 35, from Ahvaz, sentenced to death for “waging war against God”; and Mehdi Vafaei, 39, currently languishing in solitary confinement after fabricated new charges of communicating with the MEK and “waging war against God.” Supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the democratic opposition movement that has become a rallying point for Iran’s emboldened youth, carries the mandatory death sentence. Their sentences echo the cases of many others, among them Navid Afkari, the wrestling champion executed in 2020, athletes, students, workers, mothers, and even pensioners whose only offense was daring to dream of a free Iran.
More than 20 Olympic legends, including Martina Navratilova, Tracy Edwards, Sharron Davies, and Craig Foster, have raised their voices, signing a powerful letter demanding a halt to Vafaei Sani’s execution. They denounce the grotesque spectacle of a champion tortured, caged, and condemned on the spurious accusation of influencing fellow athletes. Their cry for justice is noble, but it must not be lonely. The time for platitudes is over. The machinery of death in Iran is working overtime, and unless the civilized world acts, it will continue unabated.
The clerical regime’s obsession with executions has nothing to do with justice or public order. It is the final refuge of a dictatorship in its death throes. In 2023 alone, Iran executed 853 people, a 48 percent increase over the previous year. Last year, the figure climbed to 972, the highest since 2015. So far this year, more than 1,000 souls have been extinguished. Each hanging is a message from Ali Khamenei: we will rule by fear if we cannot rule by consent. A consent, clearly, they no longer possess.
The regime’s most recent victims, including political prisoners like Zahra Tabari (67) who was sentenced to death after a 10 minute trial by the revolutionary court for “co-operating with the MEK,” Ehsan Faridi (22) sentenced to death for “waging war against God,” and Manouchehr Fallah (42) sentenced to death for propaganda against the state and insulting the leader, are being swept into a judicial vortex designed not to determine guilt, but to rubber-stamp the outcome pre-ordered by the mullahs. Ludicrous charges such as “corruption on Earth” and “Moharebeh” – waging war against God – are medieval concoctions used to crush dissent. Trials last minutes. Lawyers are denied. Torture is routine. Verdicts are upheld without appeal. This is not a justice system; it is a conveyor belt of death.
The regime’s motivations, however, are increasingly transparent and increasingly desperate. Iran’s rulers are terrified. Terrified of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising that ignited in 2022. Terrified of the courage of Iran’s Generation Z. Terrified of the growing influence of the PMOI and the democratic Resistance movement. Terrified of their own people who chant, again and again, “death to the dictator” at enormous personal risk. Even the regime’s own officials have begun to confess the truth. On October 31, a senior advisor to President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote candidly that “Generation Z is against us… this is a reality.” From the Friday prayer pulpits, those grim theatres of propaganda, Khamenei’s representatives have warned that the “decisive battle” is now being waged in the hearts and minds of the youth. This is not the swagger of a confident regime; it is the whimper of a frightened one.
And so, in their fear, they kill. They imprison relatives of activists. They torture political prisoners. They unleash their courts to fabricate new capital charges. They pour blood onto the streets and hope it will drown the rising tide of dissent. But the tide is rising faster. Now the civilized world must answer the question: Will we allow another generation of Iranians to be butchered while we issue sterile diplomatic statements? Or will we, at long last, match the courage of those facing the gallows?
The path forward is clear. It begins with an unequivocal demand that all politically motivated executions in Iran cease immediately. But it cannot end there. The perpetrators of these crimes, the judges, intelligence officials, ministers, prison wardens, torturers, and ultimately Khamenei himself, must be held accountable. The architects of this death penalty apparatus are not immune from justice simply because they operate from behind the walls of a theocracy.
Moreover, the world must recognize, formally and unambiguously, the right of the Iranian people to resist tyranny. For too long, the international community has tiptoed around this reality, fearful of “interference” while ignoring the interference of a regime that daily intrudes upon its citizens’ right to live. Resistance against state terror is not only a right, but also a moral obligation.
The Iranian people have shown breathtaking bravery in the face of unimaginable oppression. They deserve more than sympathetic words. They deserve action. They deserve solidarity. They deserve a world willing to stand up to a regime that views execution as a policy tool. The execution frenzy in Iran must end now. If we fail to confront this barbarism, history will not forget our silence. And the Iranian people, in their darkest hour, will not forgive us.
Struan Stevenson is the Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change (CiC). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14), and chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an author and international lecturer on the Middle East.