Ahmad Montazeri Tried for 'Acts Against National Security' Without Lawyer Presence in Special Clergy Court

Ahmad Montazeri, son of Hossein Ali Montazeri, was tried on Wednesday, October 20, in the Special Clergy Court in Qom due to the publication of an audio file of his father's meeting with members of the decision-making committee regarding the execution of political and ideological prisoners. The family of Ayatollah Montazeri announced this news on their Telegram channel, adding that the session was 'non-public and held without the presence of a defense lawyer and jury.' The announcement stated that Ahmad Montazeri's charge was 'acts against national security,' which was read by Ansari Zadeh, the prosecutor's representative. The Montazeri family added that Ahmad Montazeri denied his charges but 'at the request of the relevant authorities, it has been decided that the contents of the session will not be published until the court's verdict is announced.' The court session reportedly began at 9 AM and ended at 1 PM. The Special Clergy Court does not exist in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran but has been addressing the crimes of members of this profession for years. The official website of Ayatollah Montazeri published an audio file in late August of this year from a meeting of the late cleric and critic of the Islamic Republic with members of the execution committee of 1988. In that meeting, besides Ayatollah Montazeri, who was then the deputy leader of the Islamic Republic, Hossein Ali Niri, Morteza Eshraqi, Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, and Ebrahim Raisi were present. Ayatollah Montazeri described the mass execution of political prisoners as 'the greatest crime' in the history of the Islamic Republic and told those present that they would be referred to as 'criminals' in the future. The publication of this audio file faced widespread reactions inside and outside Iran. Most officials and figures of the Islamic Republic from both conservative and reformist factions who commented on the issue defended the decision of Ruhollah Khomeini, the then leader of the Islamic Republic, for the mass execution of prisoners in 1988. However, figures like Ali Motahari called for an apology from those responsible for those executions. The People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, whose members and supporters were among the majority of those executed that year, once again called for the punishment of the leaders of the Islamic Republic for 'crimes against humanity.' One hundred civil, academic, and human rights activists of Iranian origin residing abroad also wrote a letter to the UN Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court, asking these bodies to recognize the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 in the Islamic Republic of Iran as 'crimes against humanity.' During the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, several thousand members and supporters of opposition groups to the Islamic Republic were executed.