Iranian regime massacred over
30,000 political prisoners in summer of 1988, and kept silent about this
atrocity for three decades. Most of the victims were members and supports of
the main opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This year in
the presidential election as conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisie, one of the
perpetrators of the massacre, was selected as one of the main candidates, the
issue surfaced, forcing regime officials, one after another, to confess about
the carnage.
Last
week in an unprecedented interview, Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian
intelligence Minister, revealed the mindset behind the mass execution of summer
of 1988. Ali Fallahian, who was called as “the most feared mullah in Iran” by
the News Week is wanted
by Interpol for his
involvement in the AMIA bombing that
killed 85 people on July 18, 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In
the interview, Fallahian explained that whoever had any relation with the MEK
was condemned to death.
"Regarding
MEK and all the militant groups, the ruling is the death sentence ... Imam
(Khomeini) has said this ... their verdict is death sentence ... Fallahian said
in the interview.
“Mr.
Mousavi (Tabrizi) who was the Revolution’s general prosecutor used to say that
there is no need for trial at all ... it makes no sense that we try them ...
Imam repeatedly insisted that you should be careful not to let them go... Imam
continuously stressed that you should always be cautious of this matter ...
Their ruling is always execution. This was his (Khomeini’s) verdict as the
supreme leader, both before and after this event of 1988 (massacre of politicalprisoners).” Fallahian said in the interview referring to MEK members and
supporters.
"
First, you should bear in mind that their (MEK’s) ruling was death punishment;
and if the religious judge did not sentence them (MEK) to death, his ruling has
been illegal ... so all of us should acknowledge that the verdict for a Monafeq
[the term used by the regime to call a MEK member or sympathizer] is death
sentence, this was both Imam’s fatwa and his verdict... there was a discussion about
those who were supposed to be executed, but the executions did not carry out,
and those who were to be executed but didn’t get a verdict. ‘Nonetheless’ why
they were kept alive against Imam’s (Khomeini) will? “Fallahian said,
responding to a question about the victims of the massacres of 1988 (MEKmembers and supporters) who were serving their sentences.
"When
someone is a member of a military group, and that group is fighting with us,
regardless of whether that person is armed or not, he is one of them (and
should be executed).” Fallahian said referring to MEK members.
In
the summer of 1988 Khomeini, the supreme leader of regime issued a religious decree calling
for the massacre.
“Whoever
at any stage continues to belong to the (PMOI/MEK) must be executed. Annihilate
the enemies of Islam immediately!...Those who are in prisons throughout the
country and remain steadfast in their support for the MEK are waging war on
God, and are condemned to execution…It is naive to show mercy to those who wage
war on God,” reads part of the decree.
A
committee of four men was formed to implement the order, and in a matter of few
months over 30,000 political prisoners were executed, mostly members and
supporters of the MEK.
Fallahian
is not the only official confessing to the massacre of political prisoners and
MEK members and supporters. Ahmad Khatami, a board member of the regime’s
Assembly of Experts, in Tehran Friday prayers sermon called for the
perpetrators of the massacre of MEK members to be awarded medals.
Mullah
Abbasian, another Friday prayers imam, made similar remarks and said:
“During
the election season we witnessed how a number of people sought to change the
MEK’s image and criticized those who stood against the MEK… Hat’s off to the
judge who executed MEK members”
Earlier this month in an interview with a state news agency Ali Razini, the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court – said that the execution of prisoners in 1988 in what has been named the 1988 massacre was “fair” and “lawful”. In the interview he confessed that the objective of the massacre was to uproot the MEK.
Earlier this month in an interview with a state news agency Ali Razini, the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court – said that the execution of prisoners in 1988 in what has been named the 1988 massacre was “fair” and “lawful”. In the interview he confessed that the objective of the massacre was to uproot the MEK.
“Rulings
by the top 20 judges and I ensured the country’s security at that time and ever
since. As a consequence, the MEK can never establish itself here. We nipped
them in the bud.”
Razini
said referring to the rulings of massacre of thousands of MEK members.
Last
week a number of political prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj in a letter
to UN Human Rights council wrote: “The formation of a committee to investigate
the massacre in 1988 is necessary not only for the same crimes and prosecution
of the perpetrators, but also for preventing repeat of such atrocities. The
fact is that the number of executions and human rights violations in Iran are
still catastrophic, as the perpetrators of those crimes were not held accountable
or punished...”
Marking
the 29th anniversary of this
horrific purge, the time has come to hold the mullah’s regime accountable for
crimes against humanity.
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