New Europe, Sept. 7, 2016 – According to the Iranian People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI), at least 30 individuals who at present belong to the Iranian political and clerical establishment were involved in the 1988 massacre. The majority of the victims were executed and secretly buried in mass graves.
On September 7, the PMOI revealed the identities of the most senior Iranian officials responsible for the 1988 mass execution, whose names had been kept in secret for nearly three decades. According to a statement, a number of individuals, including present Minister of Justice Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Head of Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges and National Supreme Court Hossein-Ali Nayyeri and Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, a Member of Association of Clergy were members of the so-called “Death Commissions”. Those panels, were established almost two decades ago following the President Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini order to eliminate any political opposition in Iran, and comprised of religious judges, prosecutors, and representatives of the Intelligence service.
“We are faced with a crime against humanity and a massacre of political prisoners scope of which was unprecedented since World War II. The UN must set up a Commission of Inquiry into this massacre and take the necessary steps to bring the perpetrators of this great crime to justice. We also call on the international community and in particular Western countries, to condemn this great inhuman and un-Islamic crime,” Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Mohammad Mohaddessin said.
The mass executions in Iran started in July 1988 and endured for approximately 3 months. During this period, about 30,000 political prisoners, including 789 minors and 410 families fell victims of the regime. On August 9, the son of Ali Montazeri, a former Iranian cleric and once thought to become the successor of Khomeini, released the audio tapes which provided evidence of the involvement of the Iranian officials in the mass executions. However, to this day the Iranian government officially denies the killings of the political prisoners.
By Violetta Rusheva
Violetta Rusheva is a journalist at New Europe.
