‘Torture and Execution’: Read These Harrowing First-Hand Accounts

[Valin]

The Clarion Project

Hassan Mahmoud

July 18 2019

 

Survivors and witnesses of Iran’s 1988 torture and massacre gave their testimony about the crimes they witnessed. on July 15, 2019, at the Free Iran conference in Albania (Photo: Courtesy)

 

In the summer of 1988, 11 years after his takeover of Iran during the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa that led to the torture and massacre of 30,000 political prisoners held in jails across Iran. The religious edict stated:

“… Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the MEK/PMOI [the resistance movement against the Ayatollah] are waging war on God and are condemned to execution … It is naive to show mercy to those who wage war on God.”

Death Commissions were set up that swiftly sent victims to the gallows after mock trials.

In 1988, current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani himself was a high-ranking official in the defense ministry, making it highly unlikely that he was not aware of the torture and executions taking place. Shortly after taking office in 2013, Rouhani — who was touted as a moderate — appointed Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as his justice minister. Pour-Mohammadi was one of the three members of the “Death Commission” that pronounced the execution verdicts of the 30,000 prisoners killed in 1988.

On July 15, 2019, during the Free Iran conference at Ashraf 3, the new home base to the MEK located in Albania, survivors of the 1988 massacre gave their testimony about the crimes they witnessed.

Here are some of the first-hand testimonies:

(Snip)