Ahmad Montazeri's Wife: Khamenei Opposed the Execution of My Husband's Sentence

Zahra Rabani Amleshi, the wife of Ahmad Montazeri, states that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was 'opposed' to the execution of her husband's prison sentence, while Ebrahim Raisi, as the prosecutor of the Special Clerical Court, insisted on enforcing the sentence. On Tuesday, March 1, she told the 'International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran' that the Ministry of Intelligence under Hassan Rouhani's government was also 'opposed' to the execution of Ahmad Montazeri's prison sentence. Ahmad Montazeri was arrested on Wednesday, February 22, 2017, without a 'formal summons' after being called to the Special Clerical Court in Qom and was released the next day under the title of 'eight-day leave.' Mr. Montazeri was sentenced to 21 years in prison following the publication of an audio file of his father, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, protesting the executions of 1988, after several summons to the Special Clerical Court. This 'audio file' relates to a meeting on August 15, 1988, between Montazeri, the then-deputy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and several high-ranking judicial and security officials of the Islamic Republic at the time. In this audio file, Ayatollah Montazeri describes the August 1988 executions as a crime and states: 'The greatest crime committed in the Islamic Republic, which condemns our history, was carried out by you.' After its release on August 10, 2016, the audio file was removed from Ayatollah Montazeri's website at the request of the Ministry of Intelligence, but Ahmad Montazeri was tried in the Special Clerical Court in Qom for its publication and sentenced to 21 years in prison. This sentence was communicated to Mr. Montazeri on Sunday, November 28, 2016, stating that due to the 'value and sanctity of the blood of the martyr brother' and 'his age and special circumstances and lack of a criminal record,' only six years of imprisonment would be enforced, and 15 years of this sentence would be pardoned. Montazeri was arrested on Wednesday, February 22, 2017, to serve his sentence while he had previously protested this ruling. After Ahmad Montazeri's arrest, Zahra Rabani Amleshi stated that 'the appellate court's ruling was never communicated to him, and he was arrested without being informed of any ruling.' A few days after her husband's release, she also detailed new aspects of Ahmad Montazeri's arrest process, saying: 'Ebrahim Raisi, the prosecutor of the Special Clerical Court, was involved in his detention.' Mr. Raisi is one of the recipients of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri's protest against the 1988 executions in the controversial audio file. Ebrahim Raisi, who was a member of the so-called 'Death Commission' during the execution of political prisoners in 1988, is now the 'prosecutor of the Special Clerical Court' and, according to Ahmad Montazeri's wife, supported the enforcement of the prison sentence against Hossein Ali Montazeri's son. Zahra Rabani Amleshi added that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in response to a letter from Mousavi Shabiri Zanjani, one of the religious authorities, stated that he was 'opposed' to the execution of Ahmad Montazeri's sentence, but this sentence was enforced at Raisi's insistence. She added that despite the Supreme Leader's opposition to the execution of this sentence, 'Raisi wanted the sentence to be executed,' which faced discontent from Shabiri Zanjani as well. According to Ahmad Montazeri's wife, one of the intelligence agents told her after her husband's arrest that 'we always said the sentence should not be executed, but the gentlemen insisted it should be executed.' She also expressed happiness over her husband's release, saying: 'Why should it be that in this country one says go, and another says do not go? This is lawlessness.' Rabani Amleshi criticized the judiciary's performance, saying: 'One person goes on hunger strike, and they release him. Another person goes on hunger strike, and they do not release him, and he goes to the brink of death. All of this is oppression and tortures a person.'