{"id":263034,"date":"2022-08-30T22:41:09","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T20:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=263034"},"modified":"2023-02-03T03:17:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T02:17:58","slug":"irans-raisi-prepares-to-enter-us-after-forcefully-disappearing-tens-of-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners\/irans-raisi-prepares-to-enter-us-after-forcefully-disappearing-tens-of-thousands\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Raisi Prepares To Enter US After Forcefully Disappearing Tens of Thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iran-1988-massacre\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

August 30 marks the International Day of the Disappeared, trying to draw attention to t<\/span>he fate of individuals imprisoned or perished unbeknownst to their relatives and loved ones.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s event took me back to the dark days of July and August 1988 in the Gohardasht prison and my last visit with my older brother Reza. We were both arrested in 1981 for supporting the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization<\/a> of Iran (PMOI\/MEK). I will never forget the hours of interrogation and torture Reza and I, along with tens of thousands of MEK supporters, went through in the 1980s. I was promptly sentenced to 11 years in prison, and I went on to serve a sentence in its entirety.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We were arrested, and our relatives were not allowed to visit us for years.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We were under tremendous pressure, but our decision to fight for our country’s freedom from the clutches of the ruling theocracy kept us hopeful for the future. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was overwhelmed with joy when I first met Reza after some years of being separated from him and being in another prison. Little did I know that this happiness was short-lived. In 1988, seven years into his sentence, my brother was killed as part of the regime’s nationwide massacre of political prisoners. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reza, along with tens of thousands of prisoners across Iran, had their sentences suddenly and arbitrarily upgraded to death sentences by the \u201cdeath commissions\u201d assembled in response to a fatwa from the regime\u2019s founder,\u202f<\/span>Ruhollah Khomeini<\/span><\/a>, to exterminate the MEK.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reza and I were in Gohardasht prison, where Tehran\u2019s \u201cDeath Commission\u201d sealed the fate of Reza and my friends and cellmates in a few minutes, after making sure they still supported the MEK. I was taken to this committee days after Reza\u2019s execution and enquired about him; I was told he was hanged. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, in 2020, I had to share my painful memories during the trial of Hamid Noury, a prison official and an executioner who worked in Gohardasht. His trial location was transferred from Sweden to Albania to hear the testimony of seven survivors of the 1988 massacre, including me, who are members of the MEK and continue our struggle for freedom in the organization’s compound in Ashraf 3 near Tirana<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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