{"id":330649,"date":"2025-04-18T08:48:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T07:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=330649"},"modified":"2025-04-18T08:48:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T07:48:34","slug":"clerical-regime-scrambles-to-justify-irans-1988-massacre-amid-public-outcry-over-montazeri-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/clerical-regime-scrambles-to-justify-irans-1988-massacre-amid-public-outcry-over-montazeri-tape\/","title":{"rendered":"Clerical Regime Scrambles to Justify Iran&#8217;s 1988 Massacre Amid Public Outcry Over Montazeri Tape"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_330650\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-330650\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-330650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers.jpg\" alt=\"Families of 1988 massacre victims place flowers and photos at Khavaran, a site long known as the burial ground of the regime\u2019s atrocities and fallen freedom fighters\" width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-747x420.jpg 747w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-696x391.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-330650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Families of 1988 massacre victims place flowers and photos at Khavaran, a site long known as the burial ground of the regime\u2019s atrocities and fallen freedom fighters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-start=\"1135\" data-end=\"1945\"><strong><em>Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"358\" data-end=\"1237\">In a clear sign of mounting political pressure and narrative panic, Iranian state media on April 17, 2025 released the transcript of the second session in a series of closed-door clerical seminars aimed at justifying the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners\u2014just days after the public release of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners\/montazeris-second-tape-exposes-the-1988-massacres-rot-at-the-core-of-irans-theocracy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new audio recording<\/a> from the late Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri reignited public outrage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"358\" data-end=\"1237\">The session itself had taken place months earlier, on September 17, 2024, at the Imam Reza Seminary Institute in Qom, and featured Mohammad Niazi, a senior regime jurist and former Supreme Court judge, delivering what was framed as a \u201ccritical review\u201d of theological and legal objections raised about the executions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1239\" data-end=\"2088\">According to <em data-start=\"1252\" data-end=\"1270\">Rasa News Agency<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/rasanews.ir\/fa\/news\/779063\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which published the transcript<\/a>, the timing of this release was a direct response to what it described as the \u201crecent re-publication of Montazeri\u2019s audio file by hostile media,\u201d which it claimed had stirred \u201cambiguities and accusations\u201d regarding the executions of members of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mostafa Pourmohammadi&#39;s staged interview reveals the regime&#39;s desperation to rewrite history on the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/1988Massacre?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#1988Massacre<\/a> and counter MEK&#39;s influence on a restless society\u2014an organization <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Tehran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Tehran<\/a> has tried hard to eliminate and defame while claiming it has no significant following. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dbxo2jjZGa\">pic.twitter.com\/dbxo2jjZGa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy\/status\/1805498848271315171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1239\" data-end=\"2088\">The agency stated that Niazi\u2019s lecture was a \u201creasoned\u201d rebuttal to those concerns. Yet the regime\u2019s hurried release of only the second session\u2014while still withholding the others\u2014underscores how volatile and unresolved <a href=\"https:\/\/iran1988.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the 1988 massacre<\/a> remains within Iranian society. Thirty-six years later, the Islamic Republic is still scrambling to justify a mass atrocity not because its argument has grown stronger, but because its fear of public reckoning has grown sharper, particularly among younger generations and families of victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1321\" data-end=\"1438\">Niazi explicitly referenced the release of Montazeri\u2019s meeting tape as the trigger for this session, acknowledging: \u201cUnfortunately, over the years, there has been no comprehensive response to Imam [Khomeini]\u2019s historic ruling, which has led enemies to exploit this issue as a weakness of the Islamic Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2219\" data-end=\"2471\">In this new session, Niazi zeroed in on <a href=\"https:\/\/iran1988.org\/translation-of-verdict-against-ahmad-montazeri-over-publication-of-1988massacre-audio-tape\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Montazeri\u2019s rejection<\/a> of labeling MEK members as \u201chypocrites\u201d (<em data-start=\"2326\" data-end=\"2337\">monafeqin<\/em>), revealing the regime\u2019s acute discomfort with the former Deputy Supreme Leader\u2019s refusal to accept the state\u2019s propaganda lexicon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2219\" data-end=\"2471\">\u201cMontazeri argues that calling them \u2018hypocrites\u2019 is unfair. He cites Imam Ali (AS), who refused to label his battlefield opponents as disbelievers or hypocrites, but rather as brothers who had rebelled,\u201d Niazi admitted. \u201cMontazeri says, \u2018We have no right to call the Mojahedin hypocrites.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">MEK\u2019s Impact on the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Iran<\/a>-Iraq War<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DQC5tILQhe\">https:\/\/t.co\/DQC5tILQhe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy\/status\/1709708979344159045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2770\" data-end=\"3058\">This objection, rooted in deep Shiite jurisprudence, exposes the ideological bankruptcy of the regime\u2019s justification. Niazi was clearly rattled, attempting to counter the argument with strained references to classical texts that define \u201crebels\u201d (<em data-start=\"3021\" data-end=\"3028\">baghi<\/em>) as deserving of execution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2770\" data-end=\"3058\">\u201cEven if they weren\u2019t actively fighting, anyone affiliated with the MEK, even those not in the military phase, must be considered part of an organization at war with Islam,\u201d he claimed.<br \/>\n\u201cHence, they are either baghi or mohareb [those who wage war against God].\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3332\" data-end=\"3452\">In a rare admission, Niazi conceded that the central issue wasn\u2019t military activity but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners\/steadfast-the-word-that-decided-life-and-death-in-irans-1988-massacre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ideological steadfastness<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3332\" data-end=\"3452\">\u201cThe Imam\u2019s ruling said that those who remain steadfast in their beliefs are mohareb and must be executed,\u201d he confirmed, reinforcing what countless survivors have long maintained: the victims were killed not for what they did, but for what they believed.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Iran<\/a> News: Regime Cleric Struggles to Justify <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/1988Massacre?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#1988Massacre<\/a> Amid Growing Public Scrutiny<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Hp32ZNgETp\">https:\/\/t.co\/Hp32ZNgETp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy\/status\/1912101190298443933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3714\" data-end=\"4074\">While the session was framed as a response to general criticisms of the 1988 executions, Niazi\u2019s focus remained overwhelmingly on the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), making clear that their ideological steadfastness posed the regime\u2019s core existential threat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4159\" data-end=\"4372\">Elsewhere in the session, Niazi lashed out at Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister often <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna31434770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">portrayed by Western analysts<\/a> as a \u201creformist,\u201d accusing him of spreading lies about the massacre\u2019s secrecy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4159\" data-end=\"4372\">\u201cThe then-Prime Minister [Mousavi] said in a 1988 interview with Ettela&#8217;at newspaper that &#8216;we were unaware of the executions and had not seen the Imam\u2019s order.&#8217; But according to existing documents, Mr. Mousavi Ardabili, as Chief Justice, received the Imam\u2019s letter and relayed it to the national prosecutor\u2019s office. Furthermore, the Supreme Leader [Khamenei] also expressed his religious opinion in support of the Imam\u2019s decree at the time during a meeting with officials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4159\" data-end=\"4372\">Niazi asserted that Khamenei\u2019s position was \u201ccompletely clear,\u201d claiming he had provided religious justification in support of Khomeini\u2019s decree. According to Niazi, Khamenei argued that \u201ceven those who hand over supplies or give ideological guidance are combatants,\u201d and described the mass executions as \u201ca fully calculated decision by the Imam.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"lyte-wrapper\" title=\"Documentary: 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran and the role of Ebrahim Raisi\" style=\"width:853px;max-width:100%;margin:5px;\"><div class=\"lyMe\" id=\"WYL_UFF3PIQYIJE\" itemprop=\"video\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\"><div><meta itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-youtube-lyte\/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FUFF3PIQYIJE%2Fhqdefault.jpg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"embedURL\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UFF3PIQYIJE\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT40M21S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2021-11-28T21:13:59Z\" \/><\/div><div id=\"lyte_UFF3PIQYIJE\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-youtube-lyte\/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FUFF3PIQYIJE%2Fhqdefault.jpg\" class=\"pL\"><div class=\"tC\"><div class=\"tT\" itemprop=\"name\">Documentary: 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran and the role of Ebrahim Raisi<\/div><\/div><div class=\"play\"><\/div><div class=\"ctrl\"><div class=\"Lctrl\"><\/div><div class=\"Rctrl\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><noscript><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/UFF3PIQYIJE\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-youtube-lyte\/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FUFF3PIQYIJE%2F0.jpg\" alt=\"Documentary: 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran and the role of Ebrahim Raisi\" width=\"853\" height=\"460\" \/><br \/>Watch this video on YouTube<\/a><\/noscript><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"Within months after the 1979 revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini labeled anyone challenging his rule as \u201ccorrupt\u201d and started an agenda to eliminate all political dissidents. In late July 1988, several political activists held in prisons across Iran suddenly disappeared. They were young men and women, some of whom had been arrested years ago in their teens and imprisoned simply for their political opinions and peaceful activities such as distributing opposition leaflets and attending demonstrations. Most of them were supporters of the People&#039;s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) Khomeini labeled the MEK as Hypocrites and decreed: If the person at any stage [of the judicial process] maintains his or her support for the MEK, the sentence is execution. Annihilate the enemies of Islam, immediately. In his decree, Khomeini ordered the formation of three-member panels, known as \u201cDeath Commissions\u201d. Each panel included a religious judge, prosecutor, and a representative from the Ministry of Intelligence. Death Commissions were formed in at least 96 cities to put an end to MEK in Iran. Khomeini\u2019s most ardent loyalists were appointed to the commission. They included current president Ebrahim Raisi, who in 1988 was Tehran\u2019s Deputy Prosecutor and ordered the execution of MEK prisoners. For months, victims\u2019 families desperately sought information about their loved ones. They heard nothing but lies from the authorities. Ultimately, they began to learn the devastating truth. Their loved ones had been secretly executed and buried in mass graves. In 2016, an audio file of a secret meeting that was held at the height of the mass killing emerged. In the recording, from August 1988, members of the Tehran Death Commission can be heard discussing the operation with Khomeini\u2019s heir apparent. Khomeini\u2019s successor Hossein Ali Montazeri can be heard criticizing members of the Death Commission including Ebrahim Raisi for carrying out the massacre. Montazeri\u2019s criticism ended with his dismissal by Khomeini as the country\u2019s next Supreme Leader. This crime against humanity has drawn international attention. In September 2020, seven UN Special Rapporteurs wrote a letter to Iranian authorities decrying the 1988 massacre. They reported that between July and September 1988, Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed thousands of imprisoned political dissidents affiliated with political opposition groups in 32 cities in secret and discarded their bodies mostly in unmarked mass graves. In May 2021, more than 150 former UN officials and renowned international human rights and legal experts wrote to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for an international Commission of Inquiry into the 1988 massacre. But 3 decades on, the perpetrators remain in high positions of power. In July 2019, then-minister of justice and current adviser to the Chief of the Judiciary Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was a member of the Death Commission in 1988, claimed that the elimination of the MEK must continue based on Khomeini\u2019s fatwa. The perpetrators of the 1988 massacre have never been held accountable. Today they are continuing the clampdown on dissent with impunity. That includes the arrest, torture, and execution of MEK supporters and anti-regime protesters. On June 19, 2021, one of the main perpetrators of the 1988 massacre and a member of the Tehran Death Commission, Ebrahim Raisi, was appointed as the regime\u2019s president. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard has said that Ebrahim Raisi should be investigated for crime against humanity instead of taking up the presidency. In 2018, Amnesty International documented how Ebrahim Raisi had been a member of the \u2018death commission\u2019 which forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret thousands of political dissidents in Evin and Gohardasht prisons near Tehran in 1988. Music in this video: All by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license: Measured Paces https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/ http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100164 Loss http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100171 Lone Harvest http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100409 Laid Back Guitars http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100181 Heartbreaking http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100208 Earnest http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100248 Friday Morning Source: http:\/\/incompetech.com\/music\/royalty-free\/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100224 Artist: http:\/\/incompetech.com\/ Read More: https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/IranNCR\/ https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy Subscribe to NCRI weekly newsletter t.ly\/MybJ\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"lL\" style=\"max-width:100%;width:853px;margin:5px;\"><\/div><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4947\" data-end=\"5197\">\u201cMontazeri\u2019s objections are not consistent with his own jurisprudential positions,\u201d Niazi argued, attempting to portray Iran\u2019s one-time heir to the Supreme Leadership as confused, emotional, or politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5418\" data-end=\"5509\">In one of the most revealing comments, Niazi acknowledged the depth of the regime\u2019s fear: \u201cIf Imam\u2019s ruling had not been issued, no one knows what would have happened to the country and the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5418\" data-end=\"5509\">The remark lays bare the regime\u2019s foundational terror\u2014that the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncrius.org\/meks-rising-influence-in-regimes-ideological-bastion-the-seminaries.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> MEK&#8217;s ideological influence<\/a>, even from behind prison walls, was too powerful to contain by any other means.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5800\" data-end=\"6274\">To justify the executions religiously, Niazi tried to resurrect obscure jurisprudential concepts of \u201ccollective punishment\u201d and \u201clegitimate rebellion,\u201d even claiming that the lack of trial procedures didn\u2019t matter because \u201cthis was not a judicial sentence, but a ruling by the Supreme Leader.\u201d Such logic speaks volumes about the regime\u2019s continuing reliance on unaccountable clerical power to whitewash crimes it knows the public has neither forgotten nor forgiven.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6276\" data-end=\"6714\">As protests mount in Iran and abroad calling for justice over the 1988 massacre, the regime\u2019s scramble to hold sham academic panels and issue long-winded defenses shows just how destabilizing the memory of that crime remains.\u00a0Thirty-six years on, the massacre is no longer just a historical wound\u2014it is a political litmus test, dividing a ruling elite clinging to absolute power from a population that demands truth, dignity, and change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three-minute read In a clear sign of mounting political pressure and narrative panic, Iranian state media on April 17, 2025 released the transcript of the second session in a series [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":330650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,284],"tags":[142,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-330649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-resistance","8":"category-iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners","9":"tag-1988-massacre","10":"tag-mek-iran"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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