Families of 1988 Execution Victims: Mir Hossein Mousavi Should Disclose What He Knows About That Year’s Massacre

After several political and civil activists described Amnesty International’s emphasis on Mir Hossein Mousavi’s role in the mass executions of 1988 as based on “obvious distortions,” hundreds of families of execution victims from that year responded to these activists.

Hundreds of relatives of the 1988 execution victims, on Sunday, October 4, 2020, issued a statement raising the question: “Why don’t Mir Hossein Mousavi and all those affiliated with Iran’s Islamic system who themselves have been persecuted by the government and have not been immune from human rights violations in Iran, disclose all their information and knowledge about the summer massacre of 1988 to the families and society?”

These families accused Mir Hossein Mousavi, the then-Prime Minister, “and all those affiliated with Iran’s Islamic system” of “constantly distorting and covering up” regarding the 1988 executions.

The statement read: “Whether those who were directly complicit in the crime or those who have remained silent until now to protect the system or their own interests in the distortion, cover-up, and continuation of this horrific crime, must be accountable to families and all of society for all aspects of it.”

The survivors also strongly criticized what they called “the distortion of the undeniable reality of these crimes” by supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi.

This comes as 60 political and civil activists who issued a statement on the first of Mehr (September 23) of this year believe that Mir Hossein Mousavi, in his capacity as Prime Minister at the time, was unaware of the executions.

In the statement issued by these 60 people on Tuesday, the first of Mehr, which several survivors of 1988 execution victims also signed, while describing the 1988 executions as “a crime and horrific,” it stated: “Iran’s Amnesty International section promotes the issue in such a way that the planners, perpetrators, and executors of the crime all remain hidden in the shadows, while Mir Hossein Mousavi, against whom no evidence has been found so far, suddenly appears as the main culprit.”

According to some estimates, approximately five thousand political prisoners, supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization and left-wing groups such as Fadayan and the Tudeh Party, were executed in Iranian prisons in the summer of 1367 (1988) by order of Ayatollah Khomeini and through the formation of a committee known as the “Death Committee.”

Amnesty International published a general statement on September 10 of this year that included a question-and-answer section about the possibility of Mir Hossein Mousavi being aware of the widespread 1988 executions during his tenure as Prime Minister.

The publication of this statement occurred approximately three weeks after Raha Bahraini, a researcher for the organization, posted on Twitter an image of the organization’s statement from August 16, 1988, addressed to Ayatollah Mousavi Ardabili, then-head of the Supreme Judicial Council, and Hassan Habibi, then-Minister of Justice, writing that nonetheless “the policy of Mousavi’s government’s Foreign Ministry was denial.”

In December 2018, Amnesty International published a report commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the “summer 1988 executions,” announcing that at that time the organization had sent 16 urgent action letters to Iran, but the Iranian government did not respond to any of them.

Previously, Mir Hossein Mousavi, in response to the summer 1988 executions during the 2009 election period, said: “I had absolutely neither a role nor any information.”

On the other hand, in 2017, an audio file was released of a meeting and conversation between Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the dismissed successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, with Hossein-Ali Nairi, the religious governor at the time, Morteza Eshraqi, the then-prosecutor of Tehran, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the then-representative of the Ministry of Intelligence at Evin Prison.

These three, along with Ibrahim Raisi, the current head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic, who were the main executors of Khomeini’s order at that time, became known as the “Death Committee.”

In this audio file, Ayatollah Montazeri refers to the mass slaughter of political prisoners as a crime and, strongly reproaching those who executed Ayatollah Khomeini’s order, calls for an end to the executions.

Hundreds of families of 1988 execution victims, in their statement released on Sunday, October 4, also alluded to this issue and wrote that “we believe that Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the Deputy Leader, is also responsible.”

The text continues: “Despite his courageous opposition to the killing of political prisoners, he made his protest through two secret letters on August 31 and September 4 addressed to Ruhollah Khomeini and by inviting members of the Tehran Death Committee to his home on August 13 or 14 and a letter on August 14 to the members of the Death Committee, and wanted them to refrain from executions at least during Muharram. Why, after learning of the killing of political prisoners, did he not inform society and especially the families of political prisoners who visited his office at least twice in August and September, so that perhaps they could prevent the massacre of their loved ones? And why did he not go directly and in person to Tehran to meet with Khomeini to protest and prevent the continuation of the slaughter?”

The statement of the families of execution victims continues: “We declare that all current officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran from Ali Khamenei (the Leader), members of the Guardian Council, members of the Expediency Discernment Council, members of the Assembly of Experts, Ibrahim Raisi (Head of the Judiciary), Mohammad Jafar Montazeri (Prosecutor General), Hassan Rouhani (President), Alireza Avaii (Minister of Justice), Mohammad Javad Zarif (Foreign Minister), Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf (Speaker of Parliament), Ahmad Khatibi (Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran), the Minister of Interior (Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli), senior officials of the Behesht Zahra organization and all current and former officials of the system who have so far contributed to the distortion, cover-up and even continuation of this crime through the destruction of individual and mass graves and persecution of families, are also complicit in this crime, because the summer 1988 massacre is a continuing crime.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Republic who held the position of President in 1988, said in December 1988 in the newspaper Resalat regarding the executions that those who were executed were “deserving” of execution.

Source: Radio Farda