Iran’s regime has secretly executed political prisoner Ali Saber Motlaq in Lakan Prison, Rasht, according to information received from the families of prisoners in this facility. Motlaq, 62, was a longtime supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). He was once arrested an imprisoned in the 1980s due to his support for the PMOI. He was arrested again in 2020 and remained in prison until his execution.
The regime’s judiciary accused him of having killed a senior regime official in Rasht in 1981, an accusation that Ali never accepted. Saber Motlaq went on hunger strike for a month in March 2021. He was suffering from severe kidney and liver disease.
In April 2022, the Security and Counterterrorism Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) had published a “highly confidential” list of 2,273 political prisoner registered as “special” prisoners in the regime’s judiciary. The name “Geda Ali Saber Motlaq” was listed in row 2084 of the list.
The execution of Ali Saber Motlaq comes as the regime has engaged in a killing spree in its prisons, executing more than 100 prisoners in the past month. The regime has also ratcheted up the execution of political prisoners.
On November 23, the regime executed Milad Zohrevand, 21, one of the protesters arrested during Iran’s nationwide uprising that began in September 2022. Zohrevand, who hailed from Malayer, western Iran, was injured and arrested by security forces on October 27. After severe torturing Zohrevand, the regime’s criminal judiciary sentenced him to death on charges of killing a member of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) named Ali Nazari.
Also in November, the regime executed three Baluch prisoners in Zahedan Central prison. Mohammad Karim Bazkazayi (28), Mohammad Barahoui (28), and Edris Bilrani (31) were executed for being associated with a dissident group. They were arrested in August 2020 and were extremely tortured in the prisons of the IRGC. They were sentenced to death in January 2022.
On November 8, the regime executed political prisoner Meisam Chandani (Dehghani), 34, in Zahedan Central Prison. Meisam was arrested in September 2011, at the age of 22. In a sham trial, he was accused of participating in the killing of three repressive agents and sentenced to death on false charges of “acting against national security” and “waging war against God through armed action.” He was hanged after 12 years of incarceration and torture.
The Iranian Resistance has called on the United Nations, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations to intervene to stop the Iranian regime’s executions and to save the lives of prisoners, especially political prisoners. Silence and inaction in the face of the world’s leading executioner, torturer, terrorist, and warmonger, encourages this regime to continue and intensify its crimes against humanity.