Government Forces Prevent Families of Executed Political Prisoners from Entering Khavaran

Reports from Iran indicate that agents of the Islamic Republic's police, security forces, and plainclothes officers prevented the families of political prisoners executed in the 1980s from entering Khavaran cemetery on Friday, June 4. In this regard, the 'Bidar Zani' website wrote: 'The families seeking justice for Khavaran were left behind closed doors of this cemetery' and added: the presence of police vehicles and security agents occurred just two days after 'mourning and chanting at the funeral of Ebrahim Raisi.' Bidar Zani pointed out: 'This ceremony in Tehran defended Ebrahim Raisi's bloody record in the summer of 1988 massacre and the continuation of this line of repression, such that during the ceremony on Wednesday, June 2, the eulogist said: The path he took continues / Raisi's path, his sixty-seven path.' The site wrote: 'The families seeking justice for Khavaran and countless mothers seeking justice have not retreated for a moment from their belief and faith in seeking justice and achieving freedom despite all threats, arrests, security charges, imprisonment, and exile over the past four decades.' In this context, Khatereh Moieni from the Khavaran families wrote on the social network 'X' addressing the Islamic Republic: 'You cannot hide this crime as long as even a particle of that soil remains and one of us is alive.' Ms. Moieni emphasized: 'Our hope is that one day all the perpetrators and instigators of your crimes will be tried and punished, and if for any reason you die before that day, we will dance on your grave.' Khavaran is the name of a cemetery in southeastern Tehran along the Khavaran road. This site, alongside several cemeteries for religious minorities, is where thousands of political and ideological prisoners executed in Tehran's prisons during the summer of 1988 were secretly buried in mass graves without names or identification. These political prisoners, who were members and supporters of leftist organizations and the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, were executed by a committee known as the 'Death Commission.' Ebrahim Raisi was one of the members of this committee. The Human Rights Campaign in Iran also wrote regarding this matter: The mass execution of political prisoners in the months of Mordad and Shahrivar 1367 is considered the darkest part of Ebrahim Raisi's list of crimes, of which there is still little information available nearly 36 years later.