Ahmad Montazeri: Currently, there is no possibility of publishing new documents

Ahmad Montazeri, the son of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, emphasized that due to the "toxic atmosphere" that has been created, there is currently "no possibility of publishing new documents" related to his father. In an interview with the 'Alliance for Iran' website published on Friday, he stated: "In any case, Ayatollah Montazeri had valuable meetings, some of which were recorded and are part of this country's history. There are also some scientific discussions he had with other scholars about the regime's issues. All these documents are very valuable. I feel that if some of these documents were in the hands of hardliners, they would say they should be destroyed. In one of the interrogation sessions, I also said that some do not even want Mr. Montazeri's name to appear in history." Following the release of an audio file of Ayatollah Montazeri's meeting with judicial officials including Hossein Ali Niri, Morteza Eshraqi, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, and Ebrahim Raisi in 1988, Ahmad Montazeri was summoned to the Special Court for Clergy. Ahmad Montazeri was sentenced to 21 years in prison and stripped of his clerical status for publishing this audio file regarding the executions of 1988. In this meeting, Ayatollah Montazeri referred to the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988 as the "greatest crime" in the history of the Islamic Republic. Ahmad Montazeri stated in August of this year that he still has many unpublished documents of Ayatollah Montazeri. The necessity of "public awareness of the 1988 executions" Ahmad Montazeri, in another part of this interview regarding the 1988 executions, said: "This issue is not just related to the families of the victims; rather, all people should be aware of it. This issue is one of the critical issues in our society, and therefore it is also useful for solving our societal crisis." Mr. Montazeri, in another part of his remarks, emphasized the need to investigate the 1988 executions and considered the proposal by Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, to form a fact-finding committee as a suitable suggestion, adding: "If these actions were correct and according to what those four people said, that they executed God's command, then why do they conceal the execution of God's command? Why do they hide it? And if they accept that the action was invalid, it should be clarified who is responsible, and it is also clear in Sharia and law that if a violation has occurred, damages must be compensated. In these executions, although no one’s life can be restored, the truth must ultimately be discovered." Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, on Tuesday, August 26, after the release of the audio file of Ayatollah Montazeri, called for explanations from those involved in the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran, including Mr. Pourmohammadi. He wrote in a note that "it would be good for Mr. Raisi, Niri, and Pourmohammadi, who were involved in the matter, to explain and clarify the issue for the people, and of course, if there were any shortcomings in the execution of the verdict, an apology should be made." Ahmad Montazeri also responded to those who accused Ayatollah Montazeri of secrecy and asked why he did not make these protests public at the time, saying: "The main reason why he did not publicly state his words was that he did not have the opportunity. At that time, communication tools were not like today, where anything said is immediately published worldwide. Any statement made would be stifled in its infancy, denied, and would not be allowed to be published. It is likely that he would have been punished and documents would have been destroyed to conceal what happened." He also addressed the claim that Ayatollah Montazeri only joined the protesters after the trial of Mehdi Hashemi, saying: "In his memoir documents, you can see that he started protests from the very beginning. For example, in October 1981, he wrote a letter defending the rights of a group whose child was martyred. This accusation does not honestly fit him that he protested only after being attacked himself. It should even be noted that it is likely that the reason for the attacks against him was precisely these protests." Mehdi Hashemi, the brother of Hadi Hashemi, Ayatollah Montazeri's son-in-law, was a member of the Supreme Command Council of the Revolutionary Guard at the beginning of its establishment, but later, after the revelation of the Islamic Republic's arms deal with the United States, known as Iran-Contra, he was arrested and executed on charges of killing some of Ayatollah Khomeini's opponents during the Shah's time and creating discord among the officials of the Islamic Republic. The release of the audio file of Ayatollah Montazeri's meeting with judicial officials in 1988 has sparked widespread reactions among the officials of the Islamic Republic. Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the Minister of Justice, explicitly stated in response to the issue of the audio file release and the 1988 executions that he "takes pride in his role in this event." In this context, a statement by 151 political and civil activists protested Ahmad Montazeri's prison sentence.