Ali Khomeini Defends Executions of the 1980s in Iran

Ali Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, defended the executions of members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in the 1980s, accusing the group of assassinating "the country's dignitaries" and stating that if the former leader of the Islamic Republic had shown leniency towards these crimes, the country would not have seen peace for 30 years. According to Fars News Agency, Ali Khomeini said on Tuesday night, June 1, at the Fayziyeh School in Qom: "Today, some people are sympathizing with the Mojahedin, asking why you executed them? They were the ones who stood against the government and committed crimes that even ISIS would not commit." The youngest son of Ahmad Khomeini added, "They assassinated the president, the prime minister, and many of the country's dignitaries; if Imam Khomeini had always shown leniency towards these crimes, the country would not have seen peace after 30 years." Ali Khomeini also stated that Ayatollah Khomeini managed "disturbances" in the west, south, east, and even north of the country in the early years of the revolution, leading the country gradually to peace. Officials and media of the Islamic Republic use the term "hypocrites" to refer to the PMOI and other groups and individuals who opposed the Islamic Republic in the early years of the revolution. His statements come at a time when Islamic Republic officials have spoken less in recent years about the executions of their opponents in the 1980s, particularly the mass executions of prisoners in the summer of 1988. Meanwhile, Amnesty International reported in 2013 that the Islamic Republic is attempting to "erase from memory" the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988. Most of the executed prisoners that year were members of groups such as the PMOI, Tudeh Party, Fedayeen, and other leftist groups who had been tried and were serving their prison sentences. According to Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then-deputy leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini personally ordered the execution of "those who insisted on their hypocritical stance in prisons across the country." Many of those executed were buried anonymously in mass graves at the Khavaran cemetery. The exact names and numbers of those executed that year are still not fully known. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights reported that at least 1,879 political prisoners were executed, while Ayatollah Montazeri, in his memoirs, stated the number was between 2,800 and 3,800, emphasizing that he did not remember the exact figure. Islamic Republic officials have accused the PMOI of assassinating several high-ranking officials and military and security forces of the Islamic Republic, including the bombing of the Islamic Republic Party headquarters on July 7, 1981, and the bombing of the Prime Minister's office on August 30 of the same year, attributed to the PMOI, although conflicting reports about the group's role in these bombings have been published.