TEHRAN – The Islamic Republic of Iran’s judiciary executed two operational members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) on Sunday, for “manufacturing mortars and launching indiscriminate attacks against civilians, residential areas, and service facilities.”

According to the Iranian Judiciary’s Media Center, Mehdi Hassani (alias “Fardin”) and Behrouz Ehsani Eslamlou (alias “Behzad”) were hanged after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences following legal proceedings.

The Judiciary detailed that Hassani joined the MKO years ago and maintained contact with the group’s operational intermediaries.

Ehsani Eslamlou had been a member since the 1980s and resumed his terrorist activities after an early prison release.

The two had rented a safe house in Tehran where they “manufactured launchers and hand-made mortars,” which they used to target “citizens, homes, administrative and service centers, educational institutions, and charities” with the explicit aim of “disrupting social order and endangering innocent civilians,” the Judiciary said.

Their operations also included intelligence gathering, filming terrorist acts, and disseminating propaganda via MKO-linked networks.  

The terrorists were apprehended in 2022 following a months-long security operation. Ehsani Eslamlou was identified and arrested by intelligence forces while attempting to cross into Turkey. During their capture, authorities seized firearms, ammunition, mortar-making equipment, and tools for altering appearances.

Their activities included orchestrating a mortar attack on the Ministry of Communications in autumn 2022, for which the MKO claimed responsibility.

Ehsani Eslamlou had previously benefited from Iran's pardon-oriented clemency system after receiving a 15-year sentence in the 1980s for supporting MKO terror cells. His sentence was reduced to 18 months, after which he resumed terrorist activities under orders from the MKO.

The executions occur against the backdrop of the MKO’s four-decade campaign of violence against Iran.

The group collaborated with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein during his aggression against Iran during the 1980s, participating in chemical attacks against Iranian civilians and suppressing Iraqi Kurdish and Shia uprisings.

Iran designates the MKO as a terrorist entity responsible for over 17,000 Iranian deaths since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Currently based in Albania, the MKO faces mounting international scrutiny. Albanian authorities recently raided their Ashraf-3 camp, seizing computers and charging six leaders with incitement to war and cybercrimes.

Iran’s judiciary reiterated that Hassani and Ehsani Eslamlou were tried in the presence of their lawyers, and the Supreme Court rejected all appeals.