"Khavaran Justice Seekers" Call to Hold the Perpetrators and Orderers of the 1967 Executions Accountable

The "Khavaran Justice Seekers" group issued a call to the media to hold a "media court" and hold accountable the perpetrators and those who ordered the killing of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, both domestically and internationally.

The Khavaran lawyers say: "The government's stance on the national tragedy of the killing of political prisoners and covering up such a horrific crime includes keeping families completely unaware of the status of their imprisoned loved ones for several months, preventing any ceremonies, absolute denial, destroying the traces of the crime, justifying the crime, arresting and harassing families, depriving many families of their citizenship rights, and recently introducing new and baseless accusations, which are essentially trying to erase the issue."

The mass killing of prisoners in 1988 was carried out on the orders of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a Shiite cleric, described the executions as "the greatest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic."

Khavaran's lawyers say that "this time, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran imposed [Ebrahim] Raisi, who was an effective member of the death squad in the killing of political prisoners in the summer of 2018, on the Iranian people and elevated him to the presidency."

Ebrahim Raisi, the president-elect of Iran in the recent elections, is one of the main suspects in this massacre and, together with Hossein Ali Nayiri (the then Sharia judge), Morteza Eshraqi (the then prosecutor), and Mostafa Pourmohammadi (the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence in Evin Prison), is one of the members of the death squad in connection with the executions of 1988.

At the time, Ebrahim Raisi was the deputy prosecutor of Tehran and a member of the board tasked with making decisions about the execution of prisoners.

Referring to Mr. Raisi's position on the 1967 executions, the Khavaran lawyers wrote that since "the government of the Islamic Republic has never considered itself obligated to respond to the families of the victims of the national tragedy of the killing of political prisoners, we request all media outlets to "provide the families with the opportunity and means to respond by holding a media trial and having the families respond to Raisi's untrue statements in order to enlighten public opinion and prevent the distortion of history and the spread of lies by those in power and perpetrators of crimes against humanity."

On Monday, June 11, at Ebrahim Raisi's first press conference as president-elect in the 2018 elections, a reporter for Al Jazeera's English-language service mentioned his role in the execution of thousands of prisoners in Iran in the summer of 2018 and asked him "what impact could this have on how you interact with other countries and whether you plan to travel to the West?"

Ebrahim Raisi defended those executions, saying that as a judge he should be "appreciated" and "encouraged" in this regard.

He also claimed that from the beginning of his judicial responsibility, human rights have been the "most central" issue that he has always had in mind.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran has called for an independent investigation into the execution of thousands of political prisoners ordered by the Islamic Republic authorities in 1988 and the role of Ebrahim Raisi in this mass killing.

Ebrahim Raisi is under sanctions by the United States due to his background.

Source: Radio Farda