Audio File of Ayatollah Montazeri's Remarks on 1988 Executions Removed from His Website by Ministry of Intelligence Order

An audio file of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri's remarks regarding the execution of political and ideological prisoners in 1988 was removed from his website just one day after its release. Ahmad Montazeri claims that the Ministry of Intelligence ordered the removal of this file. In a post on his Telegram channel, Ahmad Montazeri stated that at 2:44 PM on Wednesday, August 10, he received a phone call from the Intelligence Office of Qom, which conveyed that the Ministry of Intelligence's position was that the recent audio file should be removed from Ayatollah Montazeri's website and channel. Meanwhile, the 'Zeytoon' website, associated with the Green Movement, reported on Wednesday that the Special Clerical Court and the Intelligence Office of Qom contacted Ahmad Montazeri, demanding the removal of this audio file from Ayatollah Montazeri's Telegram channel and website. According to this website, Ahmad Montazeri was 'threatened with serious legal action and arrest' during these phone calls, and the family of the late Montazeri was asked to 'deny the authenticity' of this audio file by any means possible. The audio file, which contained Ayatollah Montazeri's remarks in a meeting with members of the decision-making committee regarding the executions of political and ideological prisoners in 1988, has now been removed from his website. The website had published the audio on Tuesday, featuring Montazeri's comments during a meeting with Hossain Ali Niyari (the Sharia judge), Morteza Eshraqi (Tehran's prosecutor), Ebrahim Raisi (deputy prosecutor), and Mostafa Pourmohammadi (representative of intelligence in Evin), who were part of the committee responsible for the executions in the summer of 1988. In his remarks, Montazeri referred to the 1988 executions in Iran as 'the greatest crime of the Islamic Republic' and labeled the judicial officials present at the meeting as responsible for these executions and 'criminals.' The audio file received significant attention on social media shortly after its release and was widely shared. Ahmad Montazeri told Radio Farda that this audio file 'confirms the statements of Ayatollah Montazeri that have been published in previous years.' He noted that 'perhaps if this file had been released earlier, it would have been lost among documents and not received this level of attention,' but 'now, with the expansion of social media, it will have a greater impact.' Official representatives of the Islamic Republic have not reacted to this audio file. Some websites and media outlets close to the Revolutionary Guards, including Fars News Agency, have strongly protested the publication of this action by Ayatollah Montazeri's office. Just a few months after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, in August 1988, many prisoners, from the Mujahideen Khalq to leftist and Marxist groups, were executed in Iranian prisons, an event referred to as the 1988 massacre. According to Ayatollah Montazeri, Ayatollah Khomeini personally ordered the execution of 'those who insisted on their hypocritical positions in prisons across the country.' Many of those executed were buried anonymously in mass graves in Khavaran cemetery. Officials of the Islamic Republic rarely speak about the 1988 executions. Ali Razini, head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court, who has previously held positions such as head of the Tehran judiciary, stated in an interview with Fars News Agency on Tuesday, before the release of Ayatollah Montazeri's audio file, that the issue of the 1988 executions 'is not very complicated.' He claimed that 'many' imprisoned members of the Mujahideen had 'new crimes' for which Ayatollah Khomeini ordered that 'they be tried again, and a group composed of a judge and prosecutor came and, at one point, tried them all and issued sentences.' These remarks come at a time when many individuals who appeared before the decision-making committee regarding these executions and were not executed have stated that the committee only questioned their adherence to past beliefs, and those who expressed loyalty to their past beliefs were executed.