PARIS (AFP) — Vahid Baniamerian’s family only found out he was going to be executed when Iranian state media reports flashed on their phones, saying the supreme court would review his death sentence.

“They did not give any warning. Even the lawyer didn’t know,” a close relative of Baniamerian, based outside of Iran, told AFP, asking not to be identified.

“It was completely illegal, even based on their own oppressive laws.”

Baniamerian, a 34-year-old academic who taught physics, was sentenced to death along with five other defendants on charges of membership of the outlawed People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) organization. All six men have now been hanged.

He is one of dozens of people that rights groups say are political prisoners Iran has executed since the war with the United States and Israel started, from protesters to alleged members of banned groups and people convicted of spying.

Iran has pressed ahead with executions since the earliest phase of the war finished in March, in what activists see as an attempt to instill fear in society and prevent a repeat of the protests that shook the leadership earlier this year.

The Islamic Republic shows no mercy to anyone. Watch this video. Vahid Baniamerian was a beautiful soul, a human being meant for a civilized society. This video is a part of one of his classes. pic.twitter.com/G2fIiwWRXf — Hamidreza (@justchangingun) April 4, 2026

The Islamic Republic shows no mercy to anyone. Watch this video. Vahid Baniamerian was a beautiful soul, a human being meant for a civilized society. This video is a part of one of his classes. pic.twitter.com/G2fIiwWRXf

— Hamidreza (@justchangingun) April 4, 2026

The political situation is now all the more febrile after the killing of longstanding supreme leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war and his replacement by his son Mojtaba, who has yet to appear in public.

Now that a shaky ceasefire has ruptured, rights groups fear Iran will further ramp up executions to intimidate people into silence.

“With the breakdown of the ceasefire and the resumption of the........

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