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Shocking audio surfaces: Khomeini’s ex-heir acknowledges massacre of PMOI by Iran regime

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NCRI – A shocking audio recording has been published for the first time of Khomeini’s former heir-apparent, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, acknowledging the brutal nationwide massacre in Iran in 1988 of activists of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

Montazeri, who was subsequently dismissed as the heir by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, is heard addressing a meeting with the “death committee,” comprised of Hossein-Ali Nayeri, the regime’s sharia judge; Morteza Eshraqi, the regime’s prosecutor; Ebrahim Raeesi, deputy prosecutor; and Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). He tells the death committee members: “The greatest crime committed during the reign of the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed by you. Your (names) will in the future be etched in the annals of history as criminals.” He also added, “Executing these people while there have been no new activities (by the prisoners) means that … the entire judicial system has been at fault.”

In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially executed 30,000 political prisoners held in jails across Iran. This massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by Khomeini. The Iranian regime has never acknowledged these executions or provided any information as to how many prisoners were killed.

Giving an example of the extra-judicial nature of the executions of PMOI (MEK) activists that took place at the time, Montazeri says: “There was a case where a person’s brother was a prisoner. At the end they said his sister is also a suspect. They went and brought his sister. They executed him. His sister had been brought in only two days earlier and was 15 years old. They asked his sister, what do you have to say? She said, I sympathized with these people. They said since her brother had been executed, execute her as well. And they executed her too.”

The regime had been planning for the massacre for a long time, Montazeri reveals in the audio tape. He says, “(The ministry of) Intelligence wanted to do it (the massacre) and had made investments. And, Ahmad (Khomeini’s son) had been personally saying for three or four years (prior to the massacre) that the MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq) must all be executed, even if they read their newspapers, publications and statements.” Montazeri adds, “The MEK are not simply individuals. They represent an ideology and a school of thought. They represent a line of logic. One must respond to the wrong logic by presenting the right logic. One cannot resolve this through killing; killing will only propagate and spread it.”

Montazeri is heard in the recording rebuking then-judiciary minister Moussavi Ardebili’s defense of the massacre. At the time, both Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-Speaker of the Majlis (Parliament), and Ali Khamenei, then-President, also repeatedly defended the massacre committed by the regime.

Such was the brutal scale of the massacre that “the people are now revolted by the Velayat-e Faqih” system, or the absolute rule of the supreme religious leader, Montazeri says in the tape.

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Reacting to the publication of Hossein-Ali Montazeri’s shocking audio recording of his meeting with the Death Committee after 28 years, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said:

It is imperative to put the clerical regime’s leaders on trial for committing crimes against humanity

The publication of an audio tape of the former heir to the Iranian regime’s supreme leader of his meeting with members of the “death committee” 28 years ago (August 15, 1988) reveals new information about the scope and breadth of the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. It also shows that the Iranian regime’s leaders who held positions of power since the beginning of the regime’s establishment must face justice for committing one of the worst instances of crimes against humanity.

In the audio tape, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who was subsequently dismissed as the heir by then-supreme leader Khomeini, is heard addressing a meeting with the “death committee,” comprised of Hossein-Ali Nayeri, the regime’s sharia judge; Morteza Eshraqi, the regime’s prosecutor; Ebrahim Raeesi, deputy prosecutor; and Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). He tells the death committee members: “The greatest crime committed during the reign of the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed by you. Your (names) will in the future be etched in the annals of history as criminals.” He also added, “Executing these people while there have been no new activities (by the prisoners) means that … the entire judicial system has been at fault.”

Montazeri is heard in the recording rebuking then-judiciary minister Moussavi Ardebili’s defense of the massacre. At the time, both Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-Speaker of the Majlis (Parliament), and Ali Khamenei, then-President, also repeatedly defended the massacre committed by the regime.

The regime had been planning for the massacre for a long time, Montazeri reveals in the audio tape. He says, “(The ministry of) Intelligence wanted to do it (the massacre) and had made investments. And, Ahmad (Khomeini’s son) had been personally saying for three or four years (prior to the massacre) that the MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq) must all be executed, even if they read their newspapers, publications and statements.” Montazeri adds, “The MEK are not simply individuals. They represent an ideology and a school of thought. They represent a line of logic. One must respond to the wrong logic by presenting the right logic. One cannot resolve this through killing; killing will only propagate and spread it.”

Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi is currently the Justice Minister in Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet, and Hossein-Ali Nayeri is the current head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges. Ebrahim Raeesi was the clerical regime’s prosecutor up until several months ago and has recently been appointed by Khamenei as the head of the Astan Qods-e Razavi Foundation, which is one of the most important political and economic powerhouses in the clerical regime. It appropriates public funds in order to financially support some of the regime’s acts of suppression and export of terrorism, including funds spent for the war in Syria.

Montazeri’s remarks provide indisputable evidence for putting those responsible for the massacre of 1988, the clerical regime’s leaders, on trial for committing crimes against humanity. The Iranian Resistance calls the international community’s attention, specifically that of the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, to the imperative of referring this case to a responsible international tribunal. The Iranian Resistance stresses that remaining indifferent in the face of the greatest massacre of political prisoners since World War Two, and in view of clear evidence and documents, would be tantamount to a blatant violation of recognized values of human rights, peace and democracy, upon which the United Nations has been built.

Background:

The majority of those executed were either serving prison sentences for their political activities or had already finished their sentences but were still kept in prison. Some of them had previously been imprisoned and released, but were again arrested and executed during the massacre. The wave of massacre of political prisoners began in late July and continued unabated for several months.

By the time it ended in the autumn of 1988, some 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority activists of the PMOI (MEK), were slaughtered. The victims of the massacre were buried in mass graves across Iran including in Khavaran Cemetery in south-east Tehran.