As the dust settles on the recent 12-day conflict, the Iranian regime has turned its focus inward, exploiting the fog of war to escalate its brutal crackdown on political dissidents and the organized opposition. Besieged by crises at home and abroad, and terrified of another popular uprising, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is using the pretext of national security to unleash a wave of executions, torture, and repression that carries the chilling echoes of the 1988 massacre. This is not a new conflict, but a cynical intensification of the regime’s long-standing war against the Iranian people.
The state’s chilling justification: calling for a new massacre
The regime is not hiding its intentions. In a horrifying development, state-controlled media outlets are openly calling for a repeat of the 1988 massacre, in which an estimated 30,000 political prisoners, the vast majority affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), were executed in a matter of weeks by so-called “Death Committees.”
On July 8, Fars News Agency, a media outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), published an article describing the 1988 atrocity as a “successful experience.” The article directly called for its repetition, accusing today’s dissidents of “transferring information to Israel” and labeling their execution a “legitimate public demand.” This deadly rhetoric is being codified into law. On June 23, the regime’s parliament approved a bill that designates “collaboration” with Israel or the United States as “corruption on earth,” a charge that carries a mandatory death sentence. This provides the judiciary with the legal cover to systematically eliminate its opponents under the guise of fighting espionage.
A surge in state-sanctioned murder
The regime’s threats are being translated into immediate, bloody action. In a terrifying three-day period between July 9 and July 12, at least 14 prisoners were executed across the country, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). To maximize public fear, the regime’s executioners carried out medieval-style public hangings in Bukan on July 12 and Miandoab on July 9. The wave of killing has swept through prisons in Karaj, Shiraz, Nahavand, and Rasht, signaling a coordinated, nationwide campaign to terrorize the population into submission.
The horrific reality inside the prisons
For political prisoners, the war with Israel served as a direct catalyst for intensified suffering. Following Israeli airstrikes that damaged parts of Tehran’s Evin Prison on June 23, the regime seized the opportunity to subject inmates to further abuse. According to Amnesty International, hundreds of prisoners were forcibly transferred to notoriously inhumane prisons like Fashafouyeh and Qarchak. They were beaten, shackled, and crammed into filthy, overcrowded cells with insufficient food, water, and sanitation. The fate of dozens of political prisoners held in Evin’s security wards (209, 2A, 240, and 241) remains unknown, raising grave fears of enforced disappearance.
This abuse is systematic and targeted, as documented in another statement by the NCRI:
- On July 6, PMOI-affiliated political prisoner Maasoumeh Sanobarí was brutally beaten with punches and kicks by a prison official in Fardis Prison after prisoners chanted “Death to Khamenei.”
- Political prisoner Bijan Kazemi, arrested on January 20, was transferred from Fashafouyeh Prison on July 1 to an undisclosed “safe house,” a tactic used for secret interrogation and torture.
- Azar Korvandi, 63, and Mohammad Akbari Monfared, 58, are being deliberately denied urgent medical care. Azar, who suffers from a heart condition, is being refused a necessary angiography, while Mohammad, who is paralyzed, is being held without a wheelchair in Fashafouyeh’s harsh conditions.
An urgent call to prevent another crime against humanity
The parallels are undeniable. The regime’s propaganda, its new death penalty legislation, the surge in executions, and the calculated abuse of prisoners are all laying the groundwork for another crime against humanity on the scale of 1988. The international community cannot afford to be a silent bystander. The Iranian Resistance urgently calls on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, and all international bodies to condemn this brutal campaign and take immediate action. An international fact-finding mission must be dispatched to visit Iran’s prisons and meet with political prisoners before it is too late. The world must act now to save the lives of those on death row and prevent the clerical regime from once again turning its prisons into killing fields.