{"id":246073,"date":"2021-08-31T09:12:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T14:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=246073"},"modified":"2023-01-31T21:45:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T20:45:27","slug":"testimonials-about-irans-1988-massacre-highlight-destructive-effects-of-impunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/testimonials-about-irans-1988-massacre-highlight-destructive-effects-of-impunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Testimonials About Iran\u2019s 1988 Massacre Highlight Destructive Effects of Impunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the National Council of Resistance of Iran posted to its website video testimonials<\/a> from sixteen eyewitnesses to the Iranian regime\u2019s massacre of political prisoners during the summer of 1988.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These videos\u00a0coincided with\u00a0the regime\u2019s new\u00a0President Ebrahim Raisi\u2019s first cabinet<\/a> meeting, which state media described as conveying his appeal for the government to \u201cimprove people\u2019s livelihoods\u201d and defend the interests of the civilian population.\u00a0Such\u00a0statements\u00a0have no credibility.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the summer of 1988, Raisi was one of four officials to sit on the Tehran \u201cdeath commission\u201d that was tasked with implementing\u00a0Ruhollah\u00a0Khomeini\u2019s fatwa concerning the\u00a0Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)\u00a0and\u00a0its challenges to the fledgling theocratic dictatorship. It was this role, more than anything else, that fueled widespread opposition to his\u00a0presidency. Many protesters condemned Raisi publicly as the \u201chenchman of 1988\u201d and deemed him responsible for most of the estimated 30,000 deaths<\/a> that occurred during the massacre.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on recently published videos by the NCRI,\u00a0many of the massacre\u2019s eyewitnesses specifically recall Raisi being present during the cursory trials and interrogations that determined which political prisoners were \u201cholding onto their beliefs\u201d in the\u00a0MEK\u00a0and were thus guilty of the capital crime known as \u201cenmity against God.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The survivors\u2019 testimony frequently described Raisi as being especially committed to the broad application of the death penalty, and as moving through cases with mechanical efficiency, imposing the death penalty upon one prisoner after speaking to them for as little as a minute, then moving along to the next one.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The 1988 Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran: Eyewitness Accounts, Farideh Goudarzi<\/div><\/div>
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