Head of ‘Death Committee’ Defends 1988 Executions: ‘New Conspiracies Were Underway’

Hosseinali Niri, the Islamic Republic’s chief judge at the time of the summer 1367 (1988) executions, who according to witnesses in the Hamid Nouri trial headed a group known as the “Death Committee,” has once again defended these executions and accused those executed of preparing “new conspiracies.”

These statements were published as Sweden’s judicial system is set to issue its final ruling on the Hamid Nouri case in three days, with Nouri accused of participating in the execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1367 (1988).

The Islamic Republic has strongly reacted to Nouri’s trial and has called for his release.

In an interview with the Islamic Revolution Documents Center website, Niri responded to why political prisoners were retried and many executed in 1367 (1988), saying: “They were not retried for the same case. They created chaos in the prison again.”

He accused the executed of establishing “organizational relationships” and “new organizations” within the prison as well as “obtaining information from outside the prison,” adding: “They controlled the prison atmosphere and therefore new conspiracies were underway. It was not just that they wanted to serve their sentences.”

Niri also accused the executed of “childish obstinacy” and attempting to inflict “economic damage to the system” by cutting telephone lines and breaking lamps.

In the summer of 1367 (1988), a four-member group, under the order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the then-leader of the Islamic Republic, “retried” thousands of political and ideological prisoners who were serving their sentences in prisons and executed them on political charges.

The bodies of those executed, most of whom were members of the imprisoned People’s Mujahedin Organization and leftist prisoners, were buried secretly in mass graves.

More than three decades after these executions, Islamic Republic officials continue to destroy Khavaran Cemetery, the most famous burial site of these executed prisoners.

Hosseinali Niri, Morteza Eshraqi, Ebrahim Raisi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi were four judicial officials and main figures of this “Death Committee.”

In the same year 1367 (1988), Hosseinali Montazeri, the then-Deputy Leader of the Islamic Republic, called their actions “the greatest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic” and referred to these individuals as “criminals” during a meeting with them.

Eshraqi is now practicing law, Raisi is the president of the Islamic Republic, Pourmohammadi heads the Islamic Revolution Documents Center, and Niri is the head of the Judicial Discipline Court.

Emphasis on Khomeini’s Role and System’s Existential Danger

Hosseinali Niri also emphasized Khomeini’s role in the executions of the 1980s and particularly the 1367 (1988) executions in his interview with the Islamic Revolution Documents Center.

He described the conditions of the 1980s as “special circumstances” and the country’s situation as “critical,” saying: “If the Imam had not been decisive, perhaps we would not have had this security at all. Perhaps the situation would have been entirely different. Perhaps the system would not have survived.”

This high-ranking judicial official of the Islamic Republic, defending the sentences he and his associates issued in the 1980s, added: “A decisive ruling had to be given. The one who manages the court and has matters in his hands must resolve the issue. In these circumstances, you cannot run the country by saying ‘sacrifice yourself and become my martyr.'”

Referring to the method of operation of Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani, the Islamic Republic’s first chief judge, Niri generally defended Islamic Republic judges who issued death sentences based on “correct procedure.”

He, who is himself one of the judges, said: “If someone pays attention and runs the court properly, he has no regrets. If execution was deserved, it was deserved; whoever kills should be executed, whoever commits oppression should be punished.”

Niri alluded to a recommendation from Mohammadi Gilani in this regard, who had said: “If someone deserves execution, well, let them be executed.”

Although the Islamic Revolution Documents Center website describes these statements by Niri as his “first remarks” about the 1367 (1988) executions, this is not the first time this Islamic Republic judicial official has publicly commented on this matter.

In September 1393 (2014), in an interview with the “Holy Defense” news agency, he had said about these executions: “I was involved in the files of hypocrites and leftists and I say that hypocrites were much worse than leftists.”

Hosseinali Niri was appointed as deputy to the Supreme Court during Mohammad Yazdi’s tenure as head of the judiciary and served in this position for more than two decades from 1368 to September 1392 (1989-2013). Since September 1392 (2013), he has been the head of the Judicial Discipline Court.

In the summer of 1395 (2016), following the release of a controversial audio file from Hosseinali Montazeri about the 1367 (1988) executions, public attention was drawn to these executions again, and Ali Motahari, then Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, asked members of the Death Committee, including Niri, to clarify their role.

Ebrahim Raisi, whose role in these executions particularly came up during two previous presidential elections in Iran, has also defended these executions.

Following his victory in the presidential election, Raisi, in his first press conference as the president-elect, defended his role in the Death Committee with “pride” and said: “If a prosecutor defends people’s rights and public security, he should be appreciated and encouraged.”

The Islamic Republic has so far refrained from presenting a detailed report on the 1367 (1988) executions and has not allowed human rights activists to conduct independent investigations in this matter.

This is while Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has definitively defended the Islamic Republic’s judicial system’s performance.

Khamenei said in a speech to his supporters: “If you do not tell the truth, the enemy will reverse the positions of oppressor and oppressed with lies and distortion.”

Source: Radio Farda