Iran targets long-standing exiled opposition as war deepens repression
A sharp rise in Iranian executions of alleged People's Mojahedin members is drawing attention to one of the country's oldest and most divisive opposition movements – a group whose leaders fled abroad decades ago, but which still claims to run resistance networks inside Iran.
Nine of the 10 political prisoners executed by Iran since 18 March were linked to the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (known as the MEK), according to Iran Human Rights, an independent NGO that investigates each execution carried out.
Founded in 1965 in opposition to the Shah, the movement later turned against the Islamic Republic and remains one of Iran's best-organised opposition groups, despite years in exile.
“One of [those executed] was actually a former activist in exile who had come back to visit his family,” Amiry Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights, told RFI. “But all the others were genuine, active MEK members.”
Six of those nine belonged to the same resistance unit and had been on death row for nearly two years, said Afchine Alavi, the MEK's spokesman in France.
“We mobilised to save them through an information campaign,” Alavi told RFI. “Despite pressure, torture and isolation, they held firm to their convictions and refused to give in to the regime's blackmail. Their execution was a shock.”
Iran's ambassador to France backs Lebanon truce, tells RFI 'we prefer dialogue'
Spreading fear
According to both Alavi and Moghaddam, these executions are intended to spread fear and crush any desire for revolt, while international attention is focused on war.
“The political cost of executions is not high,” Moghaddam said. “The attention of the international community is focused on the war.”
He also described a major shift in who the regime is targeting. For 15 years, he said, ethnic minority groups such as Kurds, Baluch and Arabs were the main opposition groups being executed.
“Last year, for example, only two MEK members were killed. Nine in one month is therefore enormous.”
The increase comes during a period of extreme fragility for Iran's rulers following the Israeli-American offensive that began on 28 February, and another wave of popular unrest between December 2025 and March of this year which authorities responded to with mass killings.
Exiled cartoonists give a voice to Iran's silenced millions
From uprising to exile
The MEK began as opponents of the Shah's monarchy and took part in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But the group later accused Ayatollah Khomeini of stealing the revolution and turned against the new Islamic Republic.
Its leadership fled abroad after violent repression, but the movement says it has continued to act inside Iran.
“The resistance units are made up of people who are neither underground fighters nor guerrillas,” Alavi explained. “They are people from Iranian society: teachers, unemployed people, workers, people who work in institutions. They gather after dark to strike at symbols of the regime.”
The MEK has also tried to build a broader coalition, calling on ethnic minority opposition groups to join its movement.
“For now, we do not see any practical realisation of this attempt at coordination between the Mojahedin and Kurdish movements,” Jonathan Piron, a historian and Iran specialist, told RFI.
He said Kurdish demands for regional autonomy do not easily fit with the MEK's national political project.
Still, Piron described the MEK as one of Iran's best organised opposition forces.
“That is precisely what distinguishes it from the monarchists, who have managed to give instructions to the population but have no real structure,” he said. “The MEK has maintained action inside the country for a long time.”
French teachers Kohler and Paris describe 'daily horror' of Iran detention
Divisive group
From France, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI – the MEK's exiled political coalition – is presenting itself as an alternative to Iran's rulers.
“We have presented a 10-point transition plan,” Alavi said, including “the abolition of religious dictatorship”, freedoms based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an end to censorship, separation of religion and state, freedom of worship and full equality.
Under that plan, neither monarchists nor supporters of the Islamic Republic would have a place in a transitional government.
At the same time, exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last Shah, has emerged as another rallying figure for anti-regime forces, although the MEK has criticised him for backing the Israeli-American offensive.
Piron said the MEK remains deeply divisive. “For several years, the People's Mojahedin have promoted reform proposals and the desire for a democratic Iran,” he said. “But many reports describe a group that functions in a sectarian way.”
Activism inside Iran
Real support for the movement inside Iran is hard to measure because of severe repression, communications blackouts and rival propaganda.
“The MEK sometimes gives information that does not always match reality in order to prove its presence,” Piron said. “The regime also uses the group to justify repression.”
He added that authorities portray it as funded from abroad.
Some Iranians reject the movement because of its alliance with Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.
Alavi dismissed accusations of betrayal, saying the MEK was violently repressed inside Iran and needed a border region from which to launch attacks.
The MEK is not the only force opposing Iran's rulers.
Since the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising – spurred by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman arrested by the morality police – new activist, student, labour, human rights and environmental movements have emerged inside Iran.
Like older opposition groups, all are being pursued by the regime.
This story has been adapted from the original version in French by Oriane Verdier.