While the international community’s attention remains focused on the Iranian regime’s horrific execution spree, the ruling clerics are simultaneously waging a silent, cruel war against the most vulnerable: the families of political prisoners.

Over the past week, between late March and early April 2026, the regime executed six political prisoners and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)—Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Bani Amerian, and Abolhassan Montazer. Unable to break the resistance of the prisoners themselves, the desperately weakened regime has resorted to hostage-taking, arresting elderly, sick, and grieving family members to exact collective punishment and silence advocacy.

Arbitrary arrest of the Alipour family

The circumstances surrounding PMOI martyr member Babak Alipour, who was hanged on March 31, 2026, highlight the depth of the regime’s cruelty. More than two months before his execution, authorities preemptively took his family hostage. On January 26, 2026, suppressive forces arrested Babak’s 63-year-old mother, Omolbanin Dehghan, his 31-year-old sister, Maryam, and his 40-year-old brother, Roozbeh, on a street in Tehran.

Omolbanin Dehghan was specifically targeted because she was an active participant in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, advocating not just for her son but for all death-row inmates. Today, she and Maryam languish in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, while Roozbeh remains under severe interrogation in Evin Prison’s infamous Ward 209. Because they were imprisoned, the family was deprived of a final meeting and farewell with Babak. To maximize the psychological torture, the executioners have even refused to hand over Babak’s body for burial.

The abduction of ailing fathers: The case of Vali Zoghi-Tabar

In tandem with the executions, the regime has continued its sweep of innocent relatives. On Sunday, March 29, 2026, suppressive forces raided the home of Vali Zoghi-Tabar, transferring him to an undisclosed location. Vali is the father of Shahin Zoghi-Tabar, a 39-year-old imprisoned PMOI supporter. The arrest is particularly egregious as Vali is recovering from two recent surgeries and requires urgent medical care.

Shahin was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence in July 2025 and is currently incarcerated in Ward 7 of Evin Prison. Emphasizing the systemic nature of this judicial terror, Shahin was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Branch 26 of Tehran’s sham Revolutionary Court, presided over by Iman Afshari—the very same notorious executioner who handed down the death sentences to the six recently executed PMOI members.

A broader pattern of hostage-taking and weakness

This hostage-taking is not an isolated incident; it is a systematic tactic used to terrorize the families of dissidents into silence. The regime knows that families are often the loudest voices exposing its crimes to the world. By jailing grieving relatives and withholding the bodies of the executed, the state hopes to prevent funerals and mourning ceremonies from sparking new uprisings.

As the lives of prisoners and their relatives hang in the balance, the international community cannot remain passive. In a statement on April 3, 2026, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) explicitly labeled these arrests as acts of hostage-taking. The Iranian Resistance “calls on human rights defenders to take immediate action for the release of the families of PMOI members, especially the Alipour and Zoghi-Tabar families.” Global human rights organizations and the United Nations must intervene immediately to protect these innocent families, who are being punished simply for seeking justice and mourning their loved ones.

© Eurasia Review