Twenty eight years ago, more than 30,000 political prisoners - A former senior official of Iran’s intelligence ministry says the exact number is 33,700 – were massacred in the summer of 1988, based on a Fatwa (Religious decree) issued by Khomeini, founder of the current clerical regime ruling Iran.
On August 15, an audio tape of Mr. Montazeri, Khomeini’s former heir, containing his conversation with four former judicial and intelligence officials in charge of the massacre in Tehran, was disclosed, revealing shocking details about this savage crime– the most massive killing of the political prisoners since the Second World War.
One of the four is Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, the current Minister of Justice under Rouhani; another is Raeesi, Head of the Court of Judges; a third was recently appointed by Khamenei as head of one of Iran’s largest economic and political institutions and is said to have been nominated as a successor to Khamenei.
In Khomeini’s Fatwa here, “Monafeqin (Meaning hypocrites, the term used by Iran regime for the PMOI affiliates) have no belief in Islam and are apostates; they have waged war against God; therefore, anyone in all prisons across the country who still support them must be sentenced to execution.” Asked by his supreme judge about the Fatwa, Khomeini emphasized, “Anyone who supports Monafeqin, no matter at what stage of his or her sentence is, must be executed. Enemies of Islam must be immediately exterminated.”
In three letters to Khomeini, Ayatollah Montazeri opposed the massacre, saying, “Killing thousands of people in few days” will be counterproductive. PMOI represents… a school of thought which will spread through killing.”
Many of those executed were prisoners who had already received a sentence and were serving their prison terms; others were former political prisoners or families affiliated with the PMOI, who were arrested following Khomeini’s Fatwa. In Tehran and in up to 70 cities across Iran, “Death Committees” were formed to execute Khomeini’s barbaric Fatwa.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights League have all condemned the 1988 massacre, terming it a crime against humanity. On June 5, 2013, Canada’s Parliament adopted a motion by unanimous consent of all the members, which reads, “This House condemns the mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988 as constituting crimes against humanity, honours the memory of the victims buried in mass graves at Khavaran cemetery and other locations in Iran, and establishes September 1st as a day of solidarity with political prisoners in Iran.”
Canadian Friends of A Democratic Iran (CFDI) and many members of the Canadian Parliament express their deep solidarity with the victims’ families and understand their appeal for justice. We also believe that silence in the face of this horrific crime will further embolden high-ranking authorities of the regime in political, security and judicial institutions to continue to massacre political prisoners.
Therefore, we urge our government to promote the motion adopted in June 2013, to take the necessary measures as a UN member state to investigate this crime against humanity, to bring to trial the perpetrators, and to place it on the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
Members of Canada’s Parliament have expressed strong feelings about this-some of which appear below:
Hon. Judy Sgro, PC, MP: “To acknowledge the massacre of 1988 in Iran as a crime against humanity was a fair and justice-seeking measure that was adopted by our parliament in 2013. We call on all our colleagues across the world as well as on the United Nations to do the same to draw attention to this horrendous crime”
Hon. Wayne Easter, PC, MP: “In view of what has recently been disclosed in the audio tape of Mr. Montazeri, it is vital that all member states at the UN Human Rights Council particularly the Western ones condemn the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran and rightly recognize it a crime against humanity, as our Parliament unanimously did”
Hon. Candice Bergen, PC, MP: “The mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 was a crime against humanity. It is absolutely shocking that the current Minister of Justice in Iran was part of the death committee for this atrocity. As recently as last week he was proclaiming his pride in taking part in this massacre. Normalizing relations with Iran before these individuals are held accountable is completely unacceptable.”
James Bezan, MP: “The massacre of 30,000 political prisoners simply for their belief and based on a fatwa by a so-called religious leader, can be called nothing but a genocide. It must be severely and publicly condemned by all states at the UN along with the Srebrenica genocide. Justice must be fulfilled.”
David Kilgour, JD
Co-Chair of Canadian Friends of Democratic Iran
September 1, 2016
Twenty eight years ago, more than 30,000 political prisoners - A former senior official of Iran’s intelligence ministry says the exact number is 33,700 – were massacred in the summer of 1988, based on a Fatwa (Religious decree) issued by Khomeini, founder of the current clerical regime ruling Iran.