{"id":335939,"date":"2025-08-23T14:36:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=335939"},"modified":"2025-08-23T14:37:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:37:56","slug":"tehran-bulldozes-graves-of-1980s-massacre-victims-to-conceal-atrocities-while-bracing-for-a-storm-of-uprisings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/tehran-bulldozes-graves-of-1980s-massacre-victims-to-conceal-atrocities-while-bracing-for-a-storm-of-uprisings\/","title":{"rendered":"Tehran Bulldozes Graves of 1980s Massacre Victims to Conceal Atrocities while Bracing for a Storm of Uprisings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Behesht-e
Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, Section 41 \u2014 burial site of thousands of political prisoners executed in the 1980s. | Photo: Manfi, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wiki Commons<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two-minute read<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In a rare public confession, Mohammad-Javad Tajik, managing director of Tehran\u2019s Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery, has admitted<\/a> that authorities bulldozed Section 41 \u2014 the burial site of thousands of political prisoners executed in the 1980s, many of them members and supporters of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK).<\/p>\n

The revelation confirms what victims\u2019 families and human rights defenders have long alleged: the clerical dictatorship is engaged in a systematic campaign to erase evidence of its atrocities, including the 1988 prison massacre in which an estimated 30,000 political prisoners<\/a> were executed following a fatwa issued by regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini.<\/p>\n

\u201cSection 41, where some of the executed from the early revolution and members of the [PMOI] were buried \u2014 yes, we cleared it and turned it into a parking area,\u201d Tajik confessed in a newly surfaced video.<\/p>\n

For decades, Section 41 has been a symbolic battlefield between families seeking justice and authorities determined to bury both the bodies and the truth. Families have been surveilled, harassed, and arrested simply for holding memorials. Now, with the bulldozers at work, one of the last remaining traces of this dark chapter is being erased.<\/p>\n

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Montazeri\u2019s Second Tape Exposes the #1988Massacre<\/a>\u2019s Rot at the Core of #Iran<\/a>\u2019s Theocracyhttps:\/\/t.co\/twju6TSkEB<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n