1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners

The Islamic modernist People's Mujahedin of Iran (MeK) had a complicated relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini's government. Their guerilla forces, along with members of the Marxist Fedeyeen, played a key role in overthrowing the monarchy.{{cite book |author=Ruthven, Malise|title=Islam in the World|url=https://archive.org/details/islaminworld0000ruth|url-access=registration|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-19-513841-2 |pages=348–9}} However, they disagreed with Khomeini's vision about the form the Islamic political system should take. While Khomeini supported a system of rule by Islamic clerics, they claimed to support democracy, women's rights, and a classless society.{{cite book |first=Sepehr |last=Zabih |chapter = The Non-Communist Left in Iran: The Case of the Mujahidin |title = Ideology and Power in the Middle East |editor-first1=Peter J. |editor-last1=Chelkowski |editor-first2=Robert J. |editor-last2=Pranger |year=1988 |publisher = Duke University Press |isbn = 978-0-8223-8150-1|pages= 252–254}}

After the revolution, as Khomeini's government began suppressing former allies—including liberals, leftists and moderates—the MeK became the regime's most powerful enemy and its primary target. In 1980, Khomeini started criticizing the MeK, calling them elteqati (eclectic), monafeqin (hypocrites), and kafer (unbelievers). He also accused them of being contaminated with gharbzadegi ("the Western plague").{{cite book |last=Moin |first=Baqer |title=Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah |publisher=Macmillan |publication-place=New York |date=2000 |isbn=0-312-26490-9}}{{rp|234; 239}} Beginning in February 1980, Hezbollah supporters attacked meeting spots, bookstores, and newsstands owned by the MeK and other leftists.{{cite book |last=Bakhash |first=Shaul |title=The Reign Of Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution |publisher=Basic Books |publication-place=New York |date=1986-03-25 |isbn=0-465-06887-1}}{{rp|123}} Simultaneously, the government purged members of the opposition—including 20,000 teachers and nearly 8,000 military officers—for being too "Westernized".{{cite book |last=Arjomand |first=Said Amir |title=The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran |publisher=Studies in Middle Eastern Hist |publication-place=New York |date=1988 |isbn=978-0-19-504258-0 |page=144}} They also closed MeK offices, banned their newspapers, ordered their leaders' arrests, and prohibited demonstrations.{{cite book |first=Ervand |last=Abrahamian |author-link=Ervand Abrahamian |title=Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin |year=1989 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-85043-077-3|page=206}}

The crisis reached a critical turning point when Khomeini attacked President Abolhassan Banisadr, an Islamic modernist, former supporter of Khomeini, and ally of the MeK.{{rp|238}}{{rp|153}} Banisadr was then impeached by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, causing him to flee the country and call for a "resistance to dictatorship".{{cite book |last=Kepel |first=Gilles |title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam |publisher=Harvard University Press |publication-place=Cambridge, Mass |date=2002 |isbn=0-674-01090-6 |page=115}} During the conflict that followed, an "unprecedented reign of terror" was unleashed upon the MeK and similar groups. According to historian Stephanie Cronin, within six months, "2,665 persons, 90 per cent of whom were MeK members, were executed".{{cite book|last=Cronin|first=Stephanie|year=2013|title=Reformers and Revolutionaries in Modern Iran: New Perspectives on the Iranian Left|series=Routledge/BIPS Persian Studies Series|isbn=978-1-134-32890-1|publisher=Routledge|page=48}} The MeK retaliated with "spectacular" attacks, killing about 70 leaders of the Khomeinist Islamic Republic Party in one bombing.{{rp|241–242}} A few months later, they also killed the party's new leader, Mohammad Javad Bahonar.[http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/2.htm Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019120102/http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/2.htm |date=2008-10-19 }} Backgrounder, [http://hrw.org/ HRW] .{{rp|30}} Remnants of the MeK fled the country.{{cite book |last=Farrokh |first=Kaveh |title=Iran at War: 1500–1988 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford, England |isbn = 978-1-78096-221-4 |date=20 December 2011 }}{{Why|reason=Why specifically did they flee the country? Based on the context given, it seems like they were operating at parity with the Khomeinists.|date=December 2024}}

Later, in July 1988, Iraqi forces and 7,000 MeK fighters invaded Iran through Kurdistan in Operation Mersad.{{cite book |first= Sussan|last= Siavoshi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tUoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 |title=Montazeri: The Life and Thought of Iran's Revolutionary Ayatollah|publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017|isbn= 978-1316509463|pages=131}} They planned to capture the city of Kermanshah and lead an uprising. The Iraqi military armed the MeK fighters and provided them with air support.{{Citation needed|reason=For claims about the number of fighters, Kermansah, and the Iraqi military None of the previously cited sources supported these claims.|date=December 2024}} The MeK and its allies were defeated, and Iranian leaders have since attempted to shift attention away from the executions by highlighting the MeK's attack, claiming their response was justified against the attackers.{{rp|81–83}}

In 2016, an audio recording posted online purported to reveal a 1988 meeting between then-Deputy-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Montazeri and officials responsible for the mass executions in Tehran.{{Cite web |title=New audio file sheds light on 1980s executions in Iran |first=Arash |last=Karami |date=10 August 2016 |publisher=Al-Monitor |url=https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2016/08/montazeri-executions-1988-iran-mek-khomeini.html |url-status=live |archive-date=July 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702003843/https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2016/08/montazeri-executions-1988-iran-mek-khomeini.html}} In the recording, Montazeri is heard saying that the Ministry of Intelligence used the MeK's attack as a pretext to carry out the mass killings, which "had been under consideration for several years".{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

{{More citations needed section|date=December 2024}}

File:67letter.gif

Shortly before the executions began, Khomeini issued "a secret but extraordinary order—some suspect a formal fatwa". The order led to the creation of "special commissions" that were tasked with executing MeK members, who were labeled moharebs (those who war against Allah). Leftists in general were also targeted, and were labeled mortads (apostates from Islam).{{rp|210}}

In part, the letter reads:Upholding the truth (Pasdasht e Haghighat) (رضایی و سلیمی نمین، پاسداشت حقیقت) by Mohsen Rezaee and Abbas Salimi-Namin. Page 147. 2002{{cite web|title=Ayatollah Khomeini's Decree Ordering the Execution of Prisoners 1988|url=http://www.iranrights.org/library/document/106|website=Human Rights & Democracy for Iran|publisher=Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation|access-date=13 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821054143/http://www.iranrights.org/library/document/106|archive-date=21 August 2016|url-status=live}}

[In the Name of God,

The Compassionate, the Merciful,]

As the treacherous Monafeqin [Hypocrites] do not believe in Islam and what they say is out of deception and hypocrisy, and

As their leaders have confessed that they have become renegades, and

As they are waging war on God, and

As they are engaging in classical warfare in the western, the northern and the southern fronts, and

As they are collaborating with the Baathist Party of Iraq and spying for Saddam against our Muslim nation, and

As they are tied to the World Arrogance, and in light of their cowardly blows to the Islamic Republic since its inception,

It is decreed that those who are in prison throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [Hypocrites] are waging war on God and are condemned to execution.

Some argue that the 1988 executions were planned several months before they began. According to a report by Kaveh Sharooz, in late 1987 and early 1988, prison officials started "re-questioning" prisoners and grouping them based on political affiliation and sentence length.{{cite journal |last1=Kaveh |first1=Sharooz |date=2007 |title=With revolutionary rage and rancor: a preliminary report on the 1988 massacre of Iran's political prisoners |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hhrj20&div=17&id=&page= |journal=Harv. Hum. RTS |volume= 20|issue= |pages=260–261 |doi= |access-date=}}{{rp|233}}{{Relevance inline|date=December 2024|reason=It's unclear what the relevance of this paragraph is to the section it's in.}}

On 19 July 1988, Iranian authorities closed several major prisons, preventing all visits and phone calls and refusing to accept letters, care packages, or medicine from families. Courts went on an unscheduled holiday to prevent them from finding out what happened to their imprisoned relatives. Relatives of prisoners were also forbidden from congregating outside the prison gates.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Inside the prisons, cell blocks were isolated from each other and cleared of radios and televisions. All shared spaces—including classrooms, work areas, and medical rooms—were closed. Inmates were confined to their cells. Prison employees were forbidden from speaking to inmates. One prisoner made his own radio to hear news from outside, but found nothing about the lockdown was being reported.{{rp|209–10}}

The executions began that month, in July 1988.{{cite web |url= https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1394212018ENGLISH.PDF |title= Blood-soaked secrets: Why Iran's 1998 Prison Massacres are ongoing crimes against humanity |access-date= 14 December 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181215065955/https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1394212018ENGLISH.PDF |archive-date= 15 December 2018 |url-status= live |publisher=Amnesty International |date=4 December 2018 }}{{rp|8}} They were carried out by Iranian officials who later held high-ranking positions in the government.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/02/04/wiran04.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060210125211/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F02%2F04%2Fwiran04.xml |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 February 2006 |title=Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran' |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=2 February 2001 |access-date=12 September 2021 }} According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, in his book Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran, a 16-member commission oversaw the executions in Tehran. The commission included various authorities from key parts of the Islamic government: Khomeini, the president, the chief prosecutor, the Revolutionary Tribunals, the Justice and Intelligence ministries, and officials from Evin and Gohardasht prisons, where the executions took place. The chair of the commission was Ayatollah Morteza Eshraqi, who was assisted by Hojatt al-Islam, Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, and Ali Mobasheri. The commission traveled by helicopter between Evin and Gohardasht prisons. Similar commissions were set up outside of Tehran, but less is known about them.{{rp|210}}

Another account of how the executions were carried out, given by Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and supported by Abrahamian in a 2017 interview, says they were administered by a "four-man commission", known as the "death committee".{{cite web|title=Nasrin Sotoudeh: Investigate Iranian Presidential Hopeful Ebrahim Raisi for 1988 Mass Executions|url=https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/04/nasrin-sotoudeh-investigate-iranian-presidential-hopeful-ebrahim-raisi-for-1988-mass-executions/|website=Center for Human Rights in Iran|access-date=18 May 2017|date=17 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613174447/https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/04/nasrin-sotoudeh-investigate-iranian-presidential-hopeful-ebrahim-raisi-for-1988-mass-executions/|archive-date=13 June 2017|url-status=live}} The committee included judge Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, Tehran Prosecutor Eshraqi, deputy prosecutor general Ebrahim Raisi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who represented the Intelligence Ministry at Evin Prison.{{Cite web |title=An Interview with Scholar and Historian Ervand Abrahamian on the Islamic Republic's "Greatest Crime" |last=Abrahamian |first=Ervand |date=4 May 2017 |website=Center for Human Rights in Iran |url=https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/05/an-interview-with-scholar-and-historian-ervand-abrahamian-on-the-islamic-republics-greatest-crime/ |archive-date=5 May 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505122525/https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/05/an-interview-with-scholar-and-historian-ervand-abrahamian-on-the-islamic-republics-greatest-crime/}} Raisi later campaigned for president of Iran in 2017 as a hard-line conservative. He faced criticism over his part in executions but later won the presidency on his second attempt in 2021. His role earned him a reputation as a "hanging judge",{{Cite web |last=Bronte |first=Trinidad Deiros |date=2024-05-20 |title=Ebrahim Raisi, from 'hanging judge' to guardian of the principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran |url=https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-05-20/ebrahim-raisi-from-hanging-judge-to-guardian-of-the-principals-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran.html |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=EL PAÍS English |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |title=Iranian President Raisi: The Hanging Judge |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iranian-president-raisi-hanging-judge |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=The Washington Institute |language=en}} like Sadegh Khalkhali before him. It also earned him his nickname: 'Butcher of Tehran'.{{Cite news |date=2024-05-20 |title=Ebrahim Raisi, 'the Butcher of Tehran', hardline prosecutor who became Iran's president – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/05/20/ebrahim-raisi-iran-president-helicopter-butcher-tehran/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite web |date=2024-05-20 |title='Butcher of Tehran': Who was Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi? |url=https://www.euronews.com/2024/05/20/butcher-of-tehran-who-was-iranian-president-ebrahim-raisi |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=euronews |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2024-05-20 |title=Grief, but also relief for some, after Iran President Raisi dies in helicopter crash |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/death-iran-president-raisi-prompts-grief-relief-celebration-rcna153003 |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=NBC News |language=en}} Amnesty International presented evidence that linked several Iranian officials to participation in the massacre. Among them were Alireza Avayi, who allegedly served on the panel in Dezful, Raisi, who allegedly served on the panel in Tehran, Pourmohammadi, and others.{{rp|15}}{{cite web|url= https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/iran-top-government-officials-distorted-the-truth-about-1988-prison-massacres/|title= Iran: Top government officials distorted the truth about 1988 prison massacres|date= 12 December 2018|access-date= 14 December 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181212191043/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/iran-top-government-officials-distorted-the-truth-about-1988-prison-massacres/|archive-date= 12 December 2018|url-status= live}}

Most of the prisoners executed were there for nonviolent activities like distributing newspapers and leaflets, joining protests, or raising money for the opposition. Some were imprisoned for holding outlawed political views.{{rp|11}} Others were executed because of their religious views—either because they were atheists or for following different forms of Islam.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} They were tried before they were executed, but these trials were unrelated to the crimes they were imprisoned for. Many of those executed were subjected to "torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment.{{rp|117}} Due to the high number of prisoners facing execution, they were placed onto forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes every 30 minutes.{{cite book |date=2018 |title=The World's Most Notorious Dictators |publisher=Athlon Classics |page=80 |asin=B07D52QTF2}}{{Better source needed|date=December 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/1321090/Khomeini-fatwa-led-to-killing-of-30000-in-Iran.html|title=Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran'|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=4 February 2001 }} The executions were not sanctioned by Iranian law, violated international law, and are now considered a crime against humanity.{{rp|10}}{{cite web |url= https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/iran-top-government-officials-distorted-the-truth-about-1988-prison-massacres/|title= Iran: Top government officials distorted the truth about 1988 prison massacres|date= 12 December 2018|access-date=14 December 2018}}

{{See also|People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran}}

The Tehran commission began by questioning MeK members and penitents, asking if they would denounce the MeK on camera, help the government hunt down MeK members, name secret sympathizers, identify false penitents, or walk through enemy minefields. According to Abrahamian, the questions were designed to "tax to the utmost the victim's sense of decency, honour, and self-respect". Prisoners who gave wrong answers were moved to a "special room" to be executed. Alleged MeK affiliates, including children as young as 13, were hanged from cranes following Khomeini's orders. Prisoners were told that this interrogation process was not a trial, but rather a "process for initiating a general amnesty and [to separate] Muslims from non-Muslims". Many prisoners believed that they would be imminently set free. One who survived thought he was being interviewed for release during upcoming peace celebrations.{{rp|209–214}}

After 27 August, the commission turned its attention to leftist prisoners, including members of the Tudeh Party of Iran, Majority and Minority Fedayi, other Fedayi factions, Kumaleh, Rah-e Kargar, and Peykar. Like the MeK affiliates, they were told that they were not in danger and were questioned about their religious beliefs and practices. Prisoners were told that officials were asking these questions to separate practicing Muslims from non-practicing ones. However, the true purpose was to identify possible apostates, who would then be hanged alongside other condemned moharebs.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Some prisoners, who were saved from execution by answering the questions "properly", shared information with other inmates about what they were asked. One leftist prisoner, who had once attended seminary, understood the religious meaning behind the questions and warned others by knocking messages on the prison walls in morse code. The officials asked if the prisoners' fathers prayed, fasted, and read the Quran. If they had not been raised in traditional Muslim homes and "exposed to true Islam", they could not be labeled apostates. However, the sons of devout men could be. Refusing to answer the questions because of privacy concerns was also often seen as proof of apostasy.{{rp|212}}

This shocked the prisoners. One commented: "In previous years, they wanted us to confess to spying. In 1988, they wanted us to convert to Islam".{{rp|212–13}}Editorial, 'The Islamic Law of Repentance,' Aksariyat 18 May 1989{{nonspecific|date=December 2024}} There was no correlation between the length of a prisoner's sentence and the likelihood that they would be executed. The first leftists to appear before the commission had shorter sentences, with no warning of what would happen to them.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Female MeK members faced the same harsh treatment as their male counterparts, with most being hanged as "armed enemies of Allah". However, for apostasy, women received lighter punishments than men. This was because, according to the commission's interpretation of Islamic law, women were not fully responsible for their actions and "could be given discretionary punishments to mend their ways and obey male superiors".{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Leftist women, including those raised as practicing Muslims, were given another "opportunity" to recant their "apostasy". Many were given five lashes daily: one for each missed prayer. This was half the punishment men received. While many women eventually agreed to pray, some went on hunger strike, in some cases refusing both food and water. One woman died after 22 days and 550 lashes. Officials certified her death as a suicide, because it was "she who had made the decision not to pray".{{rp|215}}{{cite report |last=Mahbaz |first=E. |date=1996 |title=The Islamic Republic of Iran – The Hell for Women: Seven Years in Prison}}{{Full citation needed|date=December 2024}}

According to Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Iranian officials forbade families of executed prisoners from holding funerals or publicly mourning for a year. After a year, if their conduct was deemed acceptable, they would be told where their relatives were buried. Officials justified the executions to the victims' families by claiming that victims' names were found on notes pinned to dead MeK members during Operation Mersad. Ebadi pointed out that this explanation was unlikely and questioned why the prisoners were not given trials for supporting the enemy.{{cite book |last=Ebadi |first=Shirin |last2=Moaveni |first2=Azadeh |title=Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope |publisher=Random House |publication-place=New York |date=2006 |isbn=1-4000-6470-8}}{{rp|87–88}} In 2009, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center commissioned Geoffrey Robertson QC to review evidence and witness statements that they had collected regarding the executions. Robertson's report found that the Iranian government was still refusing to tell victims' families where their relatives were buried.{{cite news |url=http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/files/Iran%20Massacre%20Report.pdf |title=The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705022536/http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/files/Iran%20Massacre%20Report.pdf |archive-date=5 July 2010 |access-date=23 April 2013}}

{{Expand section|date=December 2024}}

The Iranian government accused investigators looking into the executions of "disclosing state secrets" and threatening national security". According to Amnesty International, "there has also been an ongoing campaign by the Islamic Republic to demonize victims, distort facts, and repress family survivors and human rights defenders".{{Page needed|date=December 2024}}

The exact number executed is unknown. Some human rights organizations estimate that up to 5,000 people killed.{{which|date=December 2024}} According to a 1990 investigation by Amnesty International, which included interviews with prisoners' relatives, "most of the executions were of political prisoners" in "the biggest wave of political executions [in Iran] since the early 1980s". Between January 1987 and June 1990, Amnesty International collected the names of at least 2,100 prisoners whose executions were announced in Iranian press.{{cite web |date=1 December 1990 |title=Iran: Violations of human rights 1987–1990 |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/021/1990/en/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209124547/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/021/1990/en/ |archive-date=9 December 2018 |website=Amnesty International |quote="In 1989 Amnesty International recorded over 1,500 executions announced for criminal offences, more than 1,000 of them for drug-trafficking offences." 1987: 158; 1988: 142; 1989: 1500; 1990 January–June: 300}}

A 1996 study by N. Mohajer, which used scattered information from outside Tehran, placed the death toll at 12,000.{{rp|212}}N. Mohajer, 'The Mass Killings in Iran' Aresh 57 (August 1996): 7{{nonspecific|date=December 2024}} In 1999, Abrahamian gathered testimonies from eyewitnesses and former prisoners. One anonymous former prisoner put the death toll in the "thousands". Another eyewitness estimated that between 5,000 and 6,000 people were killed—1,000 of them leftists and the rest MeK members.{{rp|212}}Anonymous, 'I Was Witness to the Slaughter of Political Prisoners in Gohar Dasht,' Cheshmandaz, n.14 (Winter 1995): 68{{nonspecific|date=December 2024}} Still another placed it in the 'thousands', with as many as 1,500 killed at Gohardasht prison alone.{{rp|212}}K. Homayun, 'The Slaughter at Gohar Dasht', Kar 62, (April 1992){{nonspecific|date=December 2024}}

In 2008, Amnesty International reported between 4,500 and 5,000 deaths, including women.{{Cite web |date=19 August 2008 |title=Iran: The 20th anniversary of 1988 "prison massacre" |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/118/2008/en/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704055527/http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/118/2008/en/ |archive-date=4 July 2015 |publisher=Amnesty International}} Ten years later, in 2018, they confirmed about 5,000 deaths. Human Rights Watch (HRW) puts the death toll between 2,800 and 5,000 people. According to Montazeri's autobiography, between 2,800 and 3,800 prisoners were killed, while the MeK claims a much higher number of 30,000 deaths.{{Cite web |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/2022/07/13/iran-war-crimes-verdict-looms-as-opposition-seeks-justice-for-1988-killings/ |title=Iran war crimes verdict looms as opposition seeks justice for 1988 killings |website=The National News |date=13 July 2022}}{{cite book |last=Ehteshami |first=Anoushiravan |title=Iran: Stuck in Transition (The Contemporary Middle East) |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351985451 |page=108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzUlDwAAQBAJ&dq=iran+1988+executions+%2230%2C000%22&pg=PA108 |quote=It is estimated that as many as 30,000 individuals may have been executed at that time, in response to a religious edict issued by Ayatollah Khomeini that there was no room for apostates in his Islamic republic. Ayatollah Montazeri also alluded to this tragedy in his memoirs (published in 2001) and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center's detailed report on the executions notes that estimates of those killed range from 1,000 to 30,000. See IHRDC, Deadly Fatwa: Iran's 1988 Prison Massacre (New Haven, CT: IHRDC, 2009). The insider's account is provided by Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Khatirat-i Ayatollah Montazeri, Majmu'iyyih Payvastha va Dastnivisha [Memoir of Ayatollah Montazeri, the Collection of Appendices and Handwritten Notes] (2001).}}}} Ebadi notes that most victims were young students or recent graduates, with women making up more than 10% of those killed.{{rp|90–91}}

In 2019, Iranian politician Maryam Rajavi released the book Crime Against Humanity, which is about the 1988 executions. It shows where 36 mass graves are located in Iran and says that about 30,000 prisoners were killed, most of them MeK members.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/23/new-book-details-atrocities-iranian-regime-1980s/|title=New book details atrocities by Iranian regime in the 1980s|newspaper=The Washington Times|first=Eric J.|last=Lyman|date=23 October 2019|access-date=12 December 2021}}{{Better source needed|date=December 2024}}

In 2008, human rights activist Kaveh Shahrooz expressed surprise that major groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had never fully investigated the executions.[http://www.gozaar.org/template1.php?id=1078&language=english Twenty Years of Silence: The 1988 Massacre and the Quest for Accountability] {{Webarchive|url=https://swap.stanford.edu/20090128162654/https://www.gozaar.org/template1.php?id=1078&language=english |date=28 January 2009 }}, Gozaar Amnesty International's 1990 report Iran: Violations of Human Rights 1987-1990 does briefly mentioned the executions in a few pages, stating:

{{blockquote|The political executions took place in many prisons in all parts of Iran, often far from where the armed incursion took place. Most of the executions were of political prisoners, including an unknown number of prisoners of conscience, who had already served a number of years in prison. They could have played no part in the armed incursion, and they were in no position to take part in spying or terrorist activities. Many of the dead had been tried and sentenced to prison terms during the early 1980s, many for non-violent offences such as distributing newspapers and leaflets, taking part in demonstrations or collecting funds for prisoners' families. Many of the dead had been students in their teens or early twenties at the time of their arrest. The majority of those killed were supporters of the PMOI, but hundreds of members and supporters of other political groups, including various factions of the PFOI, the Tudeh Party, the KDPI, Rah-e Kargar and others, were also among the execution victims.}}

Similarly, HRW briefly discusses the executions in a report about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chosen cabinet members. They called them "deliberate and systematic... extrajudicial killings", condemned them as crimes against humanity, and accused Pourmohammadi, who led Iran's Interior Ministry from 2005 to 2008, of direct involvement in the killings.{{Cite web |url=http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran1205/2.htm |title=HRW – Pour-Mohammadi and the 1988 Prison Massacres |access-date=10 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070316072748/http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran1205/2.htm |archive-date=16 March 2007 |url-status=live }}

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) brought attention to the executions on 30 August 2017, sharing a statement from three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) calling for truth, justice, and steps to prevent similar events.{{Cite web |url=http://undocs.org/A/HRC/36/NGO/42 |title=On the 29th anniversary of the 1988 mass extra-legal executions of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran |access-date=16 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916182417/http://undocs.org/A/HRC/36/NGO/42 |archive-date=16 September 2017 |url-status=live }} The UNHRC also received a joint statement from five UN-affiliated NGOs in February 2018. The statement asked the UN to "launch [a] fact-finding mission to investigate Iran's 1988 massacre in order to end impunity and prevent the same fate for detained protesters today".{{Cite web |url=https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/042/97/PDF/G1804297.pdf?OpenElement |title=Written statement by NGOs on Iran, during Human Rights Council |access-date=2018-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317102722/https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/042/97/PDF/G1804297.pdf?OpenElement |archive-date=2018-03-17 |url-status=live }}

On 4 December 2018, Amnesty International called on the government of Iran to reveal the fate of its political prisoners. They also urged the UN to create a team to investigate human rights crimes in Iran.{{Cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/iran-committing-crimes-against-humanity-by-concealing-fate-of-thousands-of-slaughtered-political-dissidents/ |title=Iran committing crimes against humanity by concealing fate of thousands of slaughtered political dissidents |date=4 December 2018 |access-date=15 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210063241/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/iran-committing-crimes-against-humanity-by-concealing-fate-of-thousands-of-slaughtered-political-dissidents/ |archive-date=10 December 2018 |url-status=live }} In their report Blood-soaked secrets: Why Iran’s 1988 prison massacres are ongoing crimes against humanity, they claim that:

{{blockquote|Thousands of political dissidents were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Iranian detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran and implemented across prisons in the country. Many of those killed during this time were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the process.}}

Swedish authorities arrested Hamid Nouri, who was accused of helping carry out the executions as an assistant prosecutor, in November 2019. In an article for Radio Free Europe, UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard is quoted as saying that this was the "first time that someone [was] charged in relation to the events that took place in 1988 in Iran".{{Cite web|title=Sweden Jails Iranian Prosecutor Implicated In Mass Execution In Prisons|url=https://en.radiofarda.com/a/sweden-jails-iranian-prosecutor-implicated-in-mass-execution-in-prisons/30269784.html|access-date=18 July 2020|website=RFE/RL|date=13 November 2019 |language=en}} His trial began on August 2021, two months later than planned.{{cite news |title=Suspect in Iran 1988 mass executions to be tried in Sweden in June |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/03/26/Suspect-in-Iran-1988-mass-executions-to-be-tried-in-Sweden-in-June- |access-date=28 April 2021 |work=Al Arabiya English |date=26 March 2021 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Sweden tries Hamid Nouri over 1988 Iran prison massacre|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58165166 |access-date=11 August 2021 |work=BBC News |date=8 August 2021|language=en}} He was charged with "torturing prisoners and subjecting them to inhumane conditions".{{cite news |title=First-ever prosecution in 1988 Iran massacre puts spotlight on regime|url=https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/02/07/sweden-iran-trial-1988-massacre-hamid-noury-MEK/4511638287097/ |access-date=8 March 2022 |work=UPI|language=en}} The court gave him a life sentence in July 2022.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

File:Montazeri khomeyni.JPG condemned the executions. He was dismissed by Khomeini and later placed under house arrest.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}]]

Because of the executions, Montazeri resigned from his position as next-in-line to replace Khomeini as Iran's Supreme Leader. Prior to the executions, Montazeri had clashed with Khomeini on several matters, including the trial of Mehdi Hashemi and the campaign against "hoarding". When Montazeri learned about the executions, he quickly sent three letters—two to Khomeini and one to the Special Commission—denouncing the executions "in no uncertain terms". Montazeri also wrote to Khomeini asking him to "at least order to spare women who have children" and warning that "the execution of several thousand prisoners in a few days will not reflect positively and will not be mistake-free".{{cite web |last=Lamb |first=Christina |date=4 February 2001 |title=Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/1321090/Khomeini-fatwa-led-to-killing-of-30000-in-Iran.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701102148/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/1321090/Khomeini-fatwa-led-to-killing-of-30000-in-Iran.html |archive-date=1 July 2017 |access-date=23 June 2017 |work=The Daily Telegraph}}

Montazeri reported serious prisoner abuse, claiming that "a large number of prisoners have been killed under torture by interrogators" and that "in some prisons of the Islamic Republic young girls [were] being raped". He also claimed that "as a result of unruly torture, many prisoners [became] deaf or paralyzed or afflicted with chronic diseases". He criticized the Special Commission for "violating Islam by executing repenters and minor offenders who in a proper court of law would have received a mere reprimand". Khomeini asked Montazeri to resign, saying that he had always doubted Montazeri's competence and that he "expressed reservations when the Assembly of Experts first appointed [him]", but that the Assembly had pushed for Montazeri to be the next Supreme Leader anyway. The government released letters between the two leaders, but "the selection dealt only with the Hashemi affair and scrupulously avoided the mass executions—thus observing the official line that these executions never took place".{{rp|220}}{{When|date=December 2024}}

In August 2016, supporters of Montazeri posted an audio recording online from a meeting held on 15 August 1988. The recording showed Montazeri meeting with four members of the special judicial tribunal: Eshraqi, Raisi, Pourmohammadi, and judge Hossein-Ali Nayeri.{{cite web|url=http://audio.rferl.org/FRD/2016/08/09/f2720a29-b951-4fc6-855a-c18cd25baef0.mp3|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|access-date=12 August 2016|title=audio.rferl.org/FRD/2016/08/09/f2720a29-b951-4fc6-855a-c18cd25baef0.mp3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812005847/http://audio.rferl.org/FRD/2016/08/09/f2720a29-b951-4fc6-855a-c18cd25baef0.mp3|archive-date=12 August 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Iran's Intelligence Ministry Tries to Hide Evidence of Massacre of Thousands of Political Prisoners in 1988|url=https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2016/08/ahmad-montazeri/|website=International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran|date=12 August 2016|publisher=N/A|access-date=13 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814151302/https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2016/08/ahmad-montazeri/|archive-date=14 August 2016|url-status=live}} In it, he called the tribunal members "judges of death", warning that that would be "remembered among the criminals of history" and condemning the mass executions, calling them "the biggest crime committed in the Islamic Republic since the beginning of the revolution" .{{Cite news |last=Vahidmanesh |first=Parvaneh |date=10 August 2016 |title=احمد منتظری: فایل صوتی، سند مخالفت آیت الله منتظری با اعدام های ۶۷ است |url=https://www.radiofarda.com/a/o2-ahmad-montazeri-mass-execution/27911459.html |access-date=2024-06-26 |newspaper=رادیو فردا}} The Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) had the recording taken down the day after its release.{{cite web|title=Iran News Round Up – August 10, 2016|url=http://www.criticalthreats.org/iran-news-round-august-10-2016|publisher=criticalthreats.org|access-date=12 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811130357/http://www.criticalthreats.org/iran-news-round-august-10-2016|archive-date=11 August 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Audio file revives calls for inquiry into massacre of Iran political prisoners|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/aug/11/hossein-ali-montazeri-audio-file-calls-for-inquiry-1988-massacre-iran-political-prisoners|work=The Guardian|date=11 August 2016|access-date=12 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811205108/https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/aug/11/hossein-ali-montazeri-audio-file-calls-for-inquiry-1988-massacre-iran-political-prisoners|archive-date=11 August 2016|url-status=live}} According to HRW, Montazeri's son Ahmed released the tape. As a result, he was charged with "spreading propaganda against the system" and "revealing plans, secrets or decisions regarding the state's domestic or foreign policies... in a manner amounting to espionage". He was later sentenced to 21 years in prison, but the sentence was ultimately suspended.{{cite web |title=Iran: 1988 Mass Executions Evident Crimes Against Humanity |date=8 June 2022 |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/08/iran-1988-mass-executions-evident-crimes-against-humanity |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004101907if_/https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/08/iran-1988-mass-executions-evident-crimes-against-humanity |archive-date=4 October 2022}}

{{Expand section|date=December 2024}}

Despite attempts by Iranian authorities to conceal the killings, families of those killed—and other political activists—informed the national community.

In 2012, the victims' families and survivors created the Iran Tribunal to investigate the executions. The Tribunal aims to hold the Iranian government accountable for human rights violations.{{Cite web |url=http://www.irantribunal.com/Eng/EnHome.html |title=– "May this Tribunal prevent the crime of silence"...? |access-date=7 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104235006/http://www.irantribunal.com/Eng/EnHome.html |archive-date=4 November 2012 |url-status=dead }} Court hearings were held first in London and then at The Hague Peace Palace.{{Cite web |url=http://persiandutch.com/2012/10/27/photo-gallery-court-hearing-in-the-hague-for-1980s-massacre-in-persia/ |title=- "Court Hearing in The Hague for 1980s Massacre in Persia"...? |date=27 October 2012 |access-date=7 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101023337/http://persiandutch.com/2012/10/27/photo-gallery-court-hearing-in-the-hague-for-1980s-massacre-in-persia/ |archive-date=1 November 2012 |url-status=live }}

In August 2016, Pourmohammadi spoke about the executions at a government meeting in Khorramabad, Lorestan province. He said that "We are proud we have implemented God's order about Mojahedin" (PMOI or MeK).{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/2016/08/160828_l26_pormohammadi_iran_executions_67_mojahedin_mko |title=پورمحمدی درباره اعدام‌های ۶۷: افتخار می‌کنیم حکم خدا را اجرا کردیم |language=fa |trans-title=67 executions: proud to have performed the commandment of God |date=28 August 2016 |access-date=1 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831184747/http://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/2016/08/160828_l26_pormohammadi_iran_executions_67_mojahedin_mko |archive-date=31 August 2016 |url-status=live }} The following year, in 2017, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also defended the executions, stating that those killed were "terrorists" and "hypocrites".{{cite news |title=Khamenei defends Iran's 1980s political executions that killed thousands |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/features/2017/06/06/Khamenei-defends-1980s-executions-that-killed-thousands-of-politicians- |access-date=28 April 2021 |work=Al Arabiya English |date=6 June 2017 |language=en}} The Iranian government has accused people investigating the executions of "disclosing state secrets" and "threatening national security".{{When|date=December 2024}} According to Amnesty International, the Iranian government has engaged in an ongoing campaign to demonize victims; distort facts; and silence survivors, family members of victims, and human rights defenders.{{Page needed|date=December 2024}} Public knowledge about the executions and widespread condemnation have "compelled the Islamic Republic to engage in a damage-containment propaganda exercise". Officials involved in the killings were subsequently given promotions.{{Page needed|date=December 2024}}{{cite book |last=Barlow |first=Rebecca |date=2018 |title=Human Rights and Agents of Change in Iran: Towards a Theory of Change (Studies in Iranian Politics)|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=100–101|isbn=978-0-19-533402-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1QbX90fmCVUC&dq=iran+1988+massacre+%22perpetrators%22&pg=RA2-PA203}}

Abrahamian, in Tortured Confessions, criticized the executions by pointing out that most of the prisoners killed had only committed minor offenses, as those guilty of major crimes had already been put to death. He also compared the executions to the "disappearances" of prisoners in 20th-century Latin America.{{rp|216–217}} Robertson urged the UN Security Council to create a special court to judge those responsible, similar to courts set up for crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He also called the executions "one of the worst single human rights atrocities since the Second World War". Furthermore, according to human rights activist Manouchehr Ganji, the Islamic Revolutionary Courts were criticized by various human rights organizations for conducting "secret summary trials" that ignored basic human rights and proper legal procedures.{{cite book |last=Ganji |first=Manouchehr |date=2003 |title=Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader of Resistance|publisher=Praeger |page=81 |isbn=9780275971878 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NboVl-CeYs0C&q=1988&pg=PA104}}

File:Iran 1988 massacre protest in Finchley, London 04.jpg

Scholars debate why the prisoners were executed. Sociologist Ali Akbar Mahdi believes that prison overcrowding, combined with Operation Mersad, "had much to do" with the killings.{{cite journal |title=Tortured Confessions: Prison and Public Recantations in Modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian, Review by Ali Akbar Mahdi |last1=Mahdi |first1=Ali Akbar |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=2000 |volume=32 |page=417 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800002567 |s2cid=162676627 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231808237 |access-date=1 February 2021}} Abrahamian attributes the executions to the "regime's internal dynamics". In his view, the executions acted as "a glue" to hold "together his disparate followers" and as a way to "purge" moderates like Montazeri and prevent any future "détente with the West" from destroying his legacy.{{rp|219}} He also claims that they prevented any future cooperation between Khomeinist populists and leftist groups and that Khomeini was concerned that "some of his followers had toyed with the dangerous notion of working with the Tudeh Party to incorporate more radical clauses into the Labor Law as well as into the Land Reform Law".{{Relevance inline|date=December 2024}}{{rp|182}}

{{Portal|Iran|Politics|Law}}

• Khavaran cemetery
• Mothers of Khavaran
• Freedom of speech in Iran
• History of the Islamic Republic of Iran
• Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
• Chain murders of Iran
• StopExecutionsinIran
• Trial of Hamid Nouri
• Iranian Green Movement
• 2009 Iranian presidential election protests
• 2017–2018 Iranian protests
• 2021–2022 Iranian protests
• Mahsa Amini protests
• Politics of Iran

{{Reflist}}

• Afshari Reza. Human Rights in Iran. The Abuse of Cultural Relativism. 2001. {{ISBN|0-8122-3605-X}}
• [http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss20/shahrooz.pdf Shahrooz, Kaveh With Revolutionary Rage and Rancor: A Preliminary Report on the 1988 Massacre of Iran's Political Pr Human Rights Journal, Volume 20]
• [http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/Documents?OpenFrameset Final Report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights] Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, pursuant to Commission resolution 1992/67 of 4 March 1992. Document number E/CN.4/1993/41
• Cooper, Roger. Death Plus Ten Years (Paperback). Harpercollins; New Ed edition (May 1995) {{ISBN|0-00-638103-0}}
• Rejali, Darius. Torture and Modernity: Self, society and state in modern Iran. Westview Press 1994. {{ISBN|0-691-11422-6}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss20/shahrooz.pdf "With Revolutionary Rage and Rancor: A Preliminary Report on the 1988 Massacre of Iran's Political Prisoners"]. Harvard Human Rights Journal, Volume 20
• [http://www.thesecretfatwa.org The Secret Fatwa: The untold story of the 1988 massacre in Iran] (documentary film)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061025115756/http://www.iricrimes.org/alblist.asp Marked for death Some of Assassinations 1979–96]
• [http://www.mehr.org/Mokhtar_Testimony.htm Hossein Mokhtar's Testimony]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041115145259/http://www.wfafi.org/wfafistatement7.htm The 16th Anniversary of the Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran]
• [http://www.siahkal.com/statements/english-statements/1988%20Massacre.htm It must not happen again!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514002149/http://www.siahkal.com/statements/english-statements/1988%20Massacre.htm |date=14 May 2007 }} September 2003
• [http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2002/January/Watch/index.html Watching the watcher by Ramin Ahmadi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202203/http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2002/January/Watch/index.html |date=3 March 2016 }} (Iranian.com)
• [http://www.iranian.com/Features/2002/January/Interogation/index.html Admit it]
• Association of Iranian Political Prisoners (in exile) has a home page in English, Swedish and Persian at [http://www.kanoon-zendanian.org/ کانون زندانیان سیاسی ایران - در تبعید] . Under the title "Documents" there are many references to the 1988 massacre.
• [http://persiandutch.com/2012/10/27/photo-gallery-court-hearing-in-the-hague-for-1980s-massacre-in-persia/ Photo Gallery: Court Hearing in The Hague for 1980s Massacre in Persia] (Persian Dutch Network, Oct. 2012)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190525191135/https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/editorial/16518 Ex-Khamenei advisor confirms 33,000 executed during 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran, May 2014)]
• [http://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/2016/08/160828_l26_pormohammadi_iran_executions_67_mojahedin_mko پورمحمدی درباره اعدام‌های ۶۷: افتخار می‌کنیم حکم خدا را اجرا کردیم]

{{1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iranian Political Prisoners}}

Category:Fatwas

Category:Islamic courts and tribunals

Category:History of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Category:20th-century mass murder in Iran

Category:Massacres in 1988

Executions

Category:Massacres committed by Iran

Category:Political and cultural purges

Category:Massacres in Iran

Category:Political repression in Iran

Category:People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran

Category:Iran–Iraq War crimes

Category:Political imprisonment in Iran

Category:Police brutality in Iran

Category:Crime in Iran

Category:Persecution of intellectuals

Category:Anti-communism in Iran

Category:Anti-communist terrorism

Category:Extrajudicial killings in Iran

Category:Politicides

Category:Executed Iranian people by the Islamic Republic of Iran