Vida Rabbani, Abdollah Momeni and Mehdi Mahmoudian, three prominent political and human rights activists in Iran, were arrested today, January 31, 2026, by security forces, in what appears to be a targeted reprisal for their public opposition to the ongoing state violence against protesters.
In recent weeks, the three rights defenders, together with fourteen others, signed a series of statements known as the “Statement of the Group of Seventeen,” in which the signatories strongly condemned the killing of protesters across Iran. These statements characterized the crackdown as a “crime against humanity” organized by the state and explicitly held Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, responsible for the deadly and systematic violence.
The signatories also called for the prosecution of those who ordered and carried out the repression and demanded an end to the Islamic Republic.
Earlier, on January 2, 2026, at the outset of the current protest movement, and prior to the nationwide internet shutdown and the escalation of violence and mass killings, the group had issued a joint statement, calling for a peaceful transition from the Islamic Republic as an undeniable and inevitable reality. In that statement, they expressed solidarity with nationwide protests and reaffirmed the Iranian people’s rights to freedom, justice, and self-determination.
All three rights activists, while being well-known political activists, are also seasoned human rights defenders who have paid dearly for their defense of human rights and have been subjected to imprisonment on multiple occasions. Vida Rabbani is a seasoned journalist and a social activist, Abdollah Momeni was a leading student and human rights activist, and Mehdi Mahmoudian is a well respected human rights activist, who has dedicated his career to documenting the most egregious rights violations by the state, including violations in response to the 2009 Green Movement. Their detention takes place amid an intensifying campaign of repression, as thousands of protesters and activists have been arrested across Iran in recent weeks, raising serious concerns about due process violations, enforced disappearances, and the use of detention as a tool of political intimidation.