complexity

Iran’s judiciary says it has executed two men for being members of the banned MEK opposition group and trying to overthrow the Iranian government. “Abolhassan Montazer and Vahid Baniamerian … were hanged after trial and their sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website says. The two men were also found guilty of carrying out acts of sabotage, and of attempting “rebellion through involvement in multiple terrorist acts”, according to the AFP news agency. Four other alleged members of the MEK (Mojahedin-e-Khalq), sometimes referred to as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), were executed early last week.

The MEK, a leftist group which initially supported the 1979 revolution before falling out with its leaders, has since been in exile and is designated a terrorist organisation by Tehran. Often cast by Western backers as a viable opposition group, it is in fact deeply unpopular with Iranians, in part because of its support for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.