1988 Massacre Report Pursues Iranian Regime - The UN Needs to Take Action

After 31 years, the Iran massacre in 1988 - where more than 30,000 political prisoners were sent to the gallows for a few months - based on a Khomeini fatwa, has once again become a living problem in Iranian society.

The decree of Ayatollah Khomeini called for the execution of all political prisoners affiliated with the Organization of Mujahideen of the People of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK Iran) who remained loyal to the organization. "Death Commissions" were formed throughout Iran, sending political prisoners who refused to abandon their beliefs to execution. Political prisoners affiliated with other groups were executed in a second wave approximately one month later. The victims were secretly buried in mass graves.

Relatives of the victims testified on a live satellite television show about the event and revealed new secrets about how families had been and continue to be harassed by the regime to cover the massacre. They also feel victims of the regime for more than three decades, and can no longer remain silent.

Senior regime officials are forced to address and try to defend one of the most notorious crimes against humanity of our time.

The mullahs wanted to pretend, with little success, that the matter was already a history. But crimes against humanity never become history. Those who are responsible must be brought to justice even if they are no longer in office.

But this has not been the case in Iran.

Mass murderers are still in their positions and direct the Judiciary of the regime and other forces.

The Chief Judge of Iran "allegedly served on a committee that had ordered the extrajudicial execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988," according to a 2017 report to the UN General Assembly of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.

An investigation conducted in 2017 by the London NGO Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI), discovered the identities of 87 members of the Death Commission. Many still hold high positions in the judiciary or the government. This list includes:

Head of the Judiciary: Ebrahim Raisi was in 1988 Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran and a member of the Death Commission of Tehran. He became Chief of the Judiciary in March 2019.

Minister of Justice: Alireza Avaei was Dezful Prosecutor and member of the Death Commission. He is now the Minister of Justice of Hasan Rouhani.

Vice President of Parliament: Abdolreza Mesri was a member of the Kermanshah Death Commission. He became vice president of Majlis in May 2019.

Advisor to the Chief of the Judiciary: Mostafa Pourmohammadi was a member of the Death Commission of Tehran. Since 2018, he is an advisor to the judicial chief.

Vice President of the Supreme Court: Hossein-Ali Nayyeri headed the Death Commission of Tehran. He is currently Chief of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges and Vice President of the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Judge: Ali Razini sat on the Death Commission of Tehran. He is now the Chief of the 41st Branch of the Supreme Court.

The mullahs know nothing but threats and repression. On July 25, 2019, in an interview with state magazine Mosalas, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi defended the 1988 massacre and said that newly captured Mujahedin-e Khalq (the Iranian Regime’s “Most Potent and Capable Foe”) activists would face the death penalty.

Ali Razini said on the Jamaran state website on July 29, 2019 that the killings were carried out quickly by order of Khomeini to avoid "being arrested by the bureaucracy." He recently confessed on state television that he ordered arbitrary executions of opposition members in western Iran in 1988.

The previous Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran told the General Assembly: “Over the years, a large number of reports on the massacres of 1988 have been issued. If the number of people who can dispute they disappeared and were executed, overwhelming evidence shows that thousands of people were summarily killed.”

Until the whole truth of the 1988 massacre is revealed and the perpetrators are held accountable, there will be no incentive for the Iran regime to stop human rights abuses.

While the Human Rights Council is preparing for its September session, the Diplomatic Missions in Geneva should press the Council to establish an investigative commission on the 1988 massacre.

The families of the victims in Iran expect the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, Fabian Salvioli, to investigate the Iran massacre in 1988 as Part of his mandates. And they urge the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to support the launch of an independent mission to investigate this crime against humanity.

The international community must act urgently to end the culture of impunity of the regime.

Maryam Rajavi Interview: The Religious Dictatorship In Iran Must Be Defeated

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian opposition, warns Europe and the United States about the excessive agreements with the Tehran government.

11 February is an official national holiday in Iran: it commemorates the revolution that ended the dictatorship of the Shah in 1979. One of the leading forces of the revolution was the Mojahedin Organization of the People of Iran (MEK Iran, or Mujahedin-e Khalq), whose current president is Maryam Rajavi. From Paris, she directs in exile the opposition against the dictatorship of the mullahs who assumed power immediately after the revolution. This dictatorship continues to this day.

International Solidarity with the Iranian People's Resistance

A number of personalities and dignitaries from around the world attended an event at the residential quarters of Maryam Rajavi, held after the Grand Gathering of Iranians. They declared solidarity with the Iranian Resistance, condemned the crimes of the repressive clerical regime, and expressed support for the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom.

A declaration signed by over 2,500 European parliamentarians in support of the Iranian people’s nationwide uprising and the Ten-Point Plan for a free Iran based on democracy and equality, a declaration of support by members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and a declaration of support for the Iranian Resistance signed by the Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 75 other bishops from across the U.K. were presented to Maryam Rajavi.

In brief remarks, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), expressed her gratitude to the dignitaries who participated in the Iranian Resistance’s grand gathering. Excerpts:

The event this year was held in a very different circumstance than last year. Iranian cities have been the scenes of major anti-regime protests. The social atmosphere is volatile and the Iranian people demand regime change.
To disappoint them, the mullahs tell the people of Iran that no one hears their voice. And to justify their appeasement of the mullahs, their proponents claim that there is no viable alternative to this regime. These efforts, however, are getting no-where.

The event this year was also different because the international situation has dramatically changed. It appears that the policy of appeasement has run its course because it became clear that no amount of economic and political concessions will bring any change to the behavior of the ruling theocracy.

Lending support to the Iranian people and Resistance for freedom is crucial to a successful firm policy on the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. Toppling the mullahs’ regime is vital to the restoration of the human rights of the Iranian people, and to bringing peace and tranquility to the Middle East. And I am confident that the Iranian people will succeed in bringing freedom to Iran.

Thank you and God bless you all!

Solidarity and Sympathy with Fellow Iranian Citizens

Iran has been overwhelmed and devastated by floods but the people's spirit to rise up and rebel against the mullahs are high and they remain resolved and determined.
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called on the people and youth of Ahvaz and other parts of Khuzestan to cooperate with the formation of popular councils to deal with floods in each city and area.

She emphasized that the facilities of the army and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and other government organs, especially engineering machinery and equipment, boats, helicopters, shelters, barracks and supply warehouses should be made available to the public. These belong to the people and are for the people of Iran and should be used to prevent flooding, rescue of flood victims, resettlement and reconstruction of flood-hit areas.

These facilities are abundantly available to the army, the IRGC, and the headquarters of Khatam-al-Anbia, but all serve to suppress the people, wage war in the region and fill the pockets of the regime's leaders. Reports and images of flood-hit areas over the past three weeks show that preventive measures by the government, rescue facilities, people's displacement facilities and temporary accommodation facilities are unavailable, and people are inevitably faced with floods with empty hands and primary facilities. People are deprived of the most basic means of life and are exposed to the epidemic of illnesses and vermin.

In some parts of Golestan Province, people confronted the governor’s damaging decision which led to the drowning of a village, and engaged in armed clashes.
The people of this province did not let the criminal Revolutionary Guard Corps intervene. They confronted the son of Khamenei’s representative in Golestan. And we saw a courageous woman there who daringly protested Rouhani face to face.

Hail to the brave and outspoken people of Mazandaran, Turkmen Sahra and Golestan and in the oppressed but steadfast Lorestan, where the commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) admitted that he had barely escaped from the furious people of Pol-e Dokhtar. He lamented, “No government official should dare to go to this city.”
Hail to the people of Susangerd, Dasht-e Azadegan, and Khorramshahr, and we salute the people of Khuzestan, said Maryam Rajavi in her speech.

Maryam Rajavi Calls for the Release of the Arrested

Mullah Mahmoud Alavi, Minister of Intelligence of the religious fascism ruling Iran, appeared in Friday’s prayer in Tehran and tried to boost the morale of the regime’s depressed forces after the US designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by saying words such as “Major national security reviews in light of Khamenei’s breakthrough guidelines.”

In his belated projection of power, Alavi said: “Over the past year, 116 teams related to the Mujahedin-e Khalq have been dealt with”. The mullahs’ Minister ridiculously referred to his ministry’s achievements as “intelligence epic” that were carried out by Khamenei’s “tailoring” that their details must be made available to the public through “national media,” which refers to the mullahs’ Radio and TV. In every protest and gathering, people chant: “Our shame, our shame, our Radio and TV!”

Last year’s arrests in Iranian calendar (March 21, 2018 to March 20, 2019), are far more than what the mullahs’ chief officially admits. He intentionally did not mention arrests made by other suppressive organs such as IRC Intelligence Organization, IRGC Intelligence Protection Organization, State Security Forces (SSF) and the Prosecutor’s Office.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), emphasizing that the detainees are subject to torture and execution, called for immediate action by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations and the international human rights organizations to release them and to form delegations to visit the regime's prisons and meet with these prisoners.

The clerical regime must publish the names of all the arrested and respect all their rights in accordance with the international conventions it has adopted. Torture and mistreatment are a routine method against political prisoners. During the uprising of January 2018, at least 14 prisoners were killed under torture.

Maryam Rajavi a Pioneer for Democratic Change

Maryam Rajavi is a pioneer in the struggle for democratic change in Iran. She was born on December 4, 1953, in Tehran, where she earned her B.S. in Metallurgy from the Sharif University of Technology in Iran. Rajavi joined the MEK soon after finishing university. Following the 1979 anti-monarchical revolution, she ran for a seat in Parliament from Tehran during the first parliamentary election in 1980.

In August 1993, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Iranian Resistance's parliament-in-exile, elected Maryam Rajavi as Iran's President-elect for the transitional period following the mullahs' overthrow. She subsequently resigned from her other posts to focus on her new responsibility as NCRI’s President-elect. In her new position, Rajavi has presented a formidable political, social, cultural and ideological challenge to the misogynist mullahs who invoke God to justify their actions. She has also worked to inform the world community about the objectives of the Iranian Resistance on a variety of issues.

Maryam Rajavi advocates tolerance among various religions and faiths. She consistently stresses the promotion of secularism, based on a tolerant interpretation of Islam, and considers the followers of all religions equal in the eyes of the law. Maryam Rajavi has led a global movement comprised of some of the most celebrated political and social personalities, including former U.S. government officials in the political and military arenas, as well as political personalities and parliamentarians from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia.