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US Rep. Ted Poe: Time for Accountability Over Iran’s 1988 Massacre

NCRI – The perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners in Iran will soon be held accountable for their crimes against the Iranian people, United States Congressman Ted Poe has told the Iranian Resistance’s ‘Free Iran’ rally in Paris.

Addressing tens of thousands of supporters of the Iranian Resistance on July 1, the Republican Congressman from Texas said: “Thirty years ago … the government, Khomeini, murdered 30,000 people that year because they were political dissidents. They wanted a regime change. Thirty thousand. And here we are almost 30 years later. It’s time to have a day of reckoning for those people that were murdered. And it is the responsibility of you young people over here to avenge the murder of those people, your families, 30 years ago. So I say to you, you daughters of democracy, you sons of liberty, do not give up. Do not despair. Because on the horizon, the sun is rising for a new Iran. And as the sun rises it gets brighter and brighter, because hope is brighter for that feeling and thought and belief of freedom. Freedom in Iran.”

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The 1988 massacre of political prisoners took place based on a fatwa by the then-Supreme Leader of the mullahs’ regime Khomeini who ordered the execution of all prisoners affiliated to the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

In other parts of his remarks, Congressman Poe said that the fact that “so many people are here today is proof that one day soon, we will see freedom and democracy in Iran.”

“Have faith and hope that one day the people of Iran will be able to throw off the shackles of the Supreme Leader and become a nation committed to the rule of law and freedom for everybody. And that will happen soon.”

Rep. Poe furthermore highlighted the political support that was given by members of the US Congress to the PMOI (MEK) members living previously in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty in Iraq.

“There were countless attacks at Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty. Rockets came in. Your friends and your family were murdered. And to this day not one person has been held accountable for those crimes. Well, the day is coming when the murderers of the people in Camp Liberty and Camp Ashraf, when they committed those crimes, there’s a day of reckoning. And some day they will be tried in a criminal court of justice for the crimes they committed against you. … We all know who’s behind these attacks, we know who it was. The IRGC (Revolutionary Guards) was behind all of these attacks. And I have introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity.”

Congressman Poe commended Albania for having accepted to house the PMOI members previously living under threat of attack at the two camps.

On the issue of the major world powers’ nuclear deal with the Iranian regime, Rep. Poe said: “I think … the world got a bad deal in the Iranian sanctions lifting where they now can develop nuclear weapons. But we can overcome that because I think before they get to the point where they actually have nuclear weapons there’s going to be a regime change in Iran led by the people of Iran to change that situation.”