Three-minute read
With the release of a second audio file from a historic meeting between Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri and members of the so-called “Death Committee” responsible for the 1988 massacre, Iran’s clerical regime once again stands exposed by its own senior ranks. This damning session, held on December 30, 1988, just three months before Montazeri’s ousting as heir to Khomeini, offers chilling insights into the regime’s crimes—especially its obsession with annihilating the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)—and reveals a culture of cruelty that even some insiders could no longer stomach.
Montazeri bluntly declared that the system of Velayat-e Faqih (absolute clerical rule) had become “disgusting” in the eyes of the people. “People are fed up with this system,” he told Hossein-Ali Nayeri, Morteza Eshraqi, and Ebrahim Raisi, the three judiciary officials who formed the core of the “Death Committee.” These were the men handing down mass death sentences, often within minutes, and always without due process.
The PMOI was the regime’s main fear. Their refusal to renounce their beliefs, even after years of imprisonment, terrified the theocracy. As Montazeri revealed, Khomeini’s infamous fatwa did not hinge on any criminal acts—it ordered death for any prisoner who remained loyal to the PMOI’s ideals. “You executed people who merely held beliefs,” Montazeri said. “Some of these were people whose sentences had been reduced, who had received pardons with Khomeini’s own signature—and yet you killed them anyway.” The killing was ideological, not judicial. It was about submission or death.
Steadfast: The Word That Decided Life and Death in #Iran’s #1988Massacrehttps://t.co/6PMIEq9Wgj
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 28, 2024
One of the most damning revelations in this second tape is that there was a second fatwa—previously unknown—issued by Khomeini, this time targeting leftist and Marxist prisoners. According to Montazeri, Nayeri himself had written to Khomeini asking what to do with the communists. The answer: exterminate them, too.
Nayeri, the so-called “Sharia judge,” played a central role in this legal theater of blood. He not only conducted the rapid-fire interrogations but also helped expand the scope of the killings. Montazeri confronted him: “You took people whose sentences had already been reduced—some from fifteen years to five—and executed them without them doing anything new.” The regime was playing with lives, not administering justice.
The clerical authorities particularly pushed female PMOI members to recant, as Montazeri recounted a harrowing case involving two young French women captured during a military assault by the PMOI forces inside Iran. “I told them, at least spare these two French girls,” said Montazeri, quoting Ayatollah Khalkhali’s refusal: “No, all must be executed.” He later mentioned a young woman whose farewell letter shone with faith in God and the Quran—yet she was executed merely for believing the Islamic Republic had betrayed her hopes. “She had no part in violence, not even in planning. And yet you killed her.”
#Iran’s Ruling Clerics Descend into Hysteria as Fear of Collapse Growshttps://t.co/QDmQRIOSAn
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 21, 2025
This state-driven execution campaign was not merely about silencing voices; it was about rewriting the social conscience. Montazeri lamented that the regime’s cruelty had backfired: “Now even those families who once believed in Khomeini and the revolution are questioning everything. You have made the Velayat Faqih repulsive.” He added, “We didn’t just kill people; we made the PMOI more popular. You revived them through this brutality.”
He was explicit about those responsible: “I put the blame entirely on the Intelligence Ministry and Ahmad Khomeini.” He recounted how Khomeini’s son had told him, “We need to execute all 10,000 of those Mojahedin supporters who only read their statements.” That horrifying number referred to people who had committed no crime but remained ideologically loyal—by reading, not fighting.
#Iran News: Regime Cleric Struggles to Justify #1988Massacre Amid Growing Public Scrutinyhttps://t.co/Hp32ZNgETp
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 15, 2025
The second Montazeri tape shows that even within the upper echelons of the regime, this crime caused revulsion. It damaged Khomeini’s image beyond repair, especially among those who once saw him as a symbol of justice. “We wanted his legacy to remain sacred,” Montazeri said. “Instead, you made Velayat-e Faqih synonymous with horror.”
In the end, the second tape is not just a document of past crimes. It’s a mirror, held up by one of the regime’s own architects, showing a theocracy terrified of ideas, desperate for submission, and willing to kill en masse to avoid its own collapse. But it failed. Because the victims—especially those who stood by their beliefs to the very end—became more than statistics. They became the conscience of a nation.