Leading Officials of Iranian Regime Admit the Massacre of #MEK Members
Iranian regime massacred
over 30,000 political prisoners in summer of 1988, and kept silent
about this atrocity for three decades. Most of the victims were members
and supports of the main opposition group the People’s Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
This year in the presidential election as conservative cleric Ebrahim
Raisie, one of the perpetrators of the massacre, was selected as one of
the main candidates, the issue surfaced, forcing regime officials, one
after another, to confess about the carnage.
Last week in an unprecedented interview,
Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian intelligence Minister, revealed the
mindset behind the mass execution of summer of 1988. Ali Fallahian, who
was called as “the most feared mullah in Iran” by the News Week is wanted by Interpol for his involvement in the AMIA bombing that killed 85 people on July 18, 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In the interview, Fallahian explained that whoever had any relation with the MEK was condemned to death.
"Regarding MEK and all the militant
groups, the ruling is the death sentence ... Imam (Khomeini) has said
this ... their verdict is death sentence ... Fallahian said in the
interview.
“Mr. Mousavi (Tabrizi) who was the
Revolution’s general prosecutor used to say that there is no need for
trial at all ... it makes no sense that we try them ... Imam repeatedly
insisted that you should be careful not to let them go... Imam
continuously stressed that you should always be cautious of this matter
... Their ruling is always execution. This was his (Khomeini’s) verdict
as the supreme leader, both before and after this event of 1988
(massacre of political prisoners).” Fallahian said in the interview
referring to MEK members and supporters.
" First, you should bear in mind that
their (MEK’s) ruling was death punishment; and if the religious judge
did not sentence them (MEK) to death, his ruling has been illegal ... so
all of us should acknowledge that the verdict for a Monafeq [the term
used by the regime to call a MEK member or sympathizer] is death
sentence, this was both Imam’s fatwa and his verdict... there was a
discussion about those who were supposed to be executed, but the
executions did not carry out, and those who were to be executed but
didn’t get a verdict. ‘Nonetheless’ why they were kept alive against
Imam’s (Khomeini) will? “Fallahian said, responding to a question about
the victims of the massacres of 1988 (MEK members and supporters) who
were serving their sentences.
"When someone is a member of a military
group, and that group is fighting with us, regardless of whether that
person is armed or not, he is one of them (and should be executed).”
Fallahian said referring to MEK members.
In the summer of 1988 Khomeini, the supreme leader of regime issued a religious decree calling for the massacre.
“Whoever at any stage continues to
belong to the (PMOI/MEK) must be executed. Annihilate the enemies of
Islam immediately!...Those who are in prisons throughout the country and
remain steadfast in their support for the MEK are waging war on God,
and are condemned to execution…It is naive to show mercy to those who
wage war on God,” reads part of the decree.
A committee of four men was formed to
implement the order, and in a matter of few months over 30,000 political
prisoners were executed, mostly members and supporters of the MEK.
Fallahian is not the only official
confessing to the massacre of political prisoners and MEK members and
supporters. Ahmad Khatami, a board member of the regime’s Assembly of
Experts, in Tehran Friday prayers sermon called for the perpetrators of
the massacre of MEK members to be awarded medals.
Mullah Abbasian, another Friday prayers imam, made similar remarks and said:
“During the election season we witnessed
how a number of people sought to change the MEK’s image and criticized
those who stood against the MEK… Hat’s off to the judge who executed MEK
members”
Earlier this month in an interview with a state news agency Ali Razini, the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court – said that the execution of prisoners in 1988 in what has been named the 1988 massacre was “fair” and “lawful”. In the interview he confessed that the objective of the massacre was to uproot the MEK.
Earlier this month in an interview with a state news agency Ali Razini, the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court – said that the execution of prisoners in 1988 in what has been named the 1988 massacre was “fair” and “lawful”. In the interview he confessed that the objective of the massacre was to uproot the MEK.
“Rulings by the top 20 judges and I
ensured the country’s security at that time and ever since. As a
consequence, the MEK can never establish itself here. We nipped them in
the bud.”
Razini said referring to the rulings of massacre of thousands of MEK members.
Last week a number of political
prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj in a letter to UN Human Rights
council wrote: “The formation of a committee to investigate the massacre
in 1988 is necessary not only for the same crimes and prosecution of
the perpetrators, but also for preventing repeat of such atrocities. The
fact is that the number of executions and human rights violations in
Iran are still catastrophic, as the perpetrators of those crimes were
not held accountable or punished...”
Marking the 29th anniversary of this horrific purge, the time has come to hold the mullah’s regime accountable for crimes against humanity.
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More about MEK:
A Long Conflict between the Clerical Regime and the MEK
The origins of the MEK date back to
before the 1979 Iranian Revolution., the MEK helped to overthrow the
dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlavi, but it quickly became a bitter enemy
of the emerging the religious fascism under the pretext of Islamic
Republic. To this day, the MEK and NCRI describe Ruhollah Khomenei and
his associates as having co-opted a popular revolution in order to
empower themselves while imposing a fundamentalist view of Islam onto
the people of Iran.
Under the Islamic Republic, the MEK was
quickly marginalized and affiliation with it was criminalized. Much of
the organization’s leadership went to neighboring Iraq and built an
exile community called Camp Ashraf, from which the MEK organized
activities aimed at ousting the clerical regime and bringing the Iranian
Revolution back in line with its pro-democratic origins. But the
persistence of these efforts also prompted the struggling regime to
crack down with extreme violence on the MEK and other opponents of
theocratic rule.
The crackdowns culminated in the
massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, as the Iran-Iraq
War was coming to a close. Thousands of political prisoners were held in
Iranian jails at that time, many of them having already served out
their assigned prison sentences. And with the MEK already serving as the
main voice of opposition to the regime at that time, its members and
supporters naturally made up the vast majority of the population of such
prisoners.
As the result of a fatwa handed down by
Khomeini, the regime convened what came to be known as the Death
Commission, assigning three judges the task of briefly interviewing
prisoners to determine whether they retained any sympathy for the MEK or
harbored any resentment toward the existing government. Those who were
deemed to have shown any sign of continued opposition were sentenced to
be hanged. After a period of about three months, an estimated 30,000
people had been put to death. Many other killings of MEK members
preceded and followed that incident, so that today the Free Iran rally
includes an annual memorial for approximately 120,000 martyrs from the
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.
The obvious motive behind the 1988
massacre and other such killings was the destruction of the MEK. And yet
it has not only survived but thrived, gaining allies to form the NCRI
and acquiring the widespread support that is put on display at each
year’s Free Iran rally. In the previous events, the keynote speech was
delivered by Maryam Rajavi, who has been known to receive several
minutes of applause from the massive crowd as she takes the stage. Her
speeches provide concrete examples of the vulnerability of the clerical
regime and emphasize the ever-improving prospects for the MEK to lead
the way in bringing about regime change.
The recipients of that message are
diverse and they include more than just the assembled crowd of MEK
members and supporters. The expectation is that the international
dignitaries at each year’s event will carry the message of the MEK back
to their own governments and help to encourage more policymakers to
recognize the role of the Iranian Resistance in the potential creation
of a free and democratic Iranian nation. It is also expected that the
event will inspire millions of Iranians to plan for the eventual removal
of the clerical regime. And indeed, the MEK broadcasts the event via
its own satellite television network, to millions of Iranian households
with illegal hookups.
