Despite the pounding from airstrikes and the current talk of a "new regime" in charge of Iran, the remnants of the "old regime" continue a practice for which it was notoriously known: executing its opponents who marched in protests late last year and up to the recent bombing of Iran.
So far, there has been no statement on this practice by President Donald Trump or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
On Monday, according to several published reports, two of 19 activists with the anti-regime Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) were hanged. Their names were Mohammad Taghavi and Akbar Daneshvarkar.
Both were convicted of "multiple terrorist operations in Tehran," according to a government statement.
On Tuesday, two more went to the gallows: Babak Alipour and Pouya Ghobadi. The remaining fifteen are on death row at the dreaded Qezel Hesar prison, the largest state prison in Iran and one with an estimated 20,000 inmates.
Their crime was membership in the MEK, considered one of the largest opposition groups to the regime.
"Carrying out such criminal executions in the midst of an external war constitutes an explicit admission by the ruling clerics that their principal enemy is the Iranian people and Resistance," said Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which includes the MEK and is considered the largest of the opposition groups to the regime.
"This unrestrained bloodshed will not go unanswered by rebellious youth and freedom fighters, who will ultimately sweep this disgraceful, anti-human regime from our homeland," she added.
Even as the theocracy in Tehran battles for its survival, its executions of opponents — almost always by hanging — are rising.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.