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Iran Regime’s Official “Proud” of Role in 1988 Massacre

 

NCRI – Earlier this month, a senior judicial official in the Iranian regime has publicly tried to justify the state’s execution of tens of thousands of political prisoners during the eighties.

In an interview with a state news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the official – Judge Ali Razini, the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court – said that the execution of prisoners in 1988 in what has been named the 1988 massacre was “fair” and “lawful”.

Judge Razini is the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court.

During the 1988 massacre, the so called “Death Committee” ordered the execution of political prisoners, many of whom were members or supporters of the PMOI, the banned opposition group. The prisoners’ fate was decided based on their loyalty to the Islamic Republic.

The judge said he was “proud” to have had an important role during the eighties. He also framed many political dissidents so that they could not be released from prison.

He spoke about what he did: “Specifically I interviewed a thousand prisoners [in 1986] to make them confess to committing offenses inside prison so that we would have a logical reason to put them on trial and convict them again. They were sentenced to additional prison terms between three and five years.”

He added: “Rulings by the top 20 judges and I ensured the country’s security at that time and ever since. As a consequence, the MEK can never establish itself here. We nipped them in the bud. In Bojnourd, 80 to 90 percent of the high school and university students had ties with opposition groups. We began to prosecute and sentenced five of them to death. Three months later, the situation changed and their families took us seriously and chastised their children [to dissuade them from joining the groups].”

The issue of the 1988 massacre came up again during the recent presidential elections. One of the main candidates, Ebrahim Raisi, was a member of the famous “Death Committee”. This re-opened wounds for the Iranian people and triggered a new wave of dissent across the country. They called on justice for those who died and urged the regime to denounce his actions.

The people were victorious in that he didn’t become president, despite being the favoured one for the Supreme Leader. The resistance in Iran is growing in numbers and in strength and it will be the downfall of the regime.