Iranian Officials Have Destroyed the Graves of Executed Victims from 1988

Two organizations, Amnesty International and Justice for Iran, reported that Iranian officials have "deliberately" destroyed mass graves of the victims of the political prisoner massacre in 1988 in at least seven cities across Iran. Based on new evidence, including satellite images, videos, and photographs, these organizations stated that from 2003 to 2017, the Iranian government has been destroying seven mass graves of the victims of the 1988 executions in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Rasht, Sanandaj, and Qorveh in Kurdistan province. The report details that these actions include destruction by bulldozers, construction of roads and buildings, dumping of garbage, or the creation of new graves at the sites of the mass graves. Meanwhile, Philip Luther, the director of Middle East and North Africa research at Amnesty International, stated, "The crimes committed during the 1988 massacre are like a wound that has not healed even after three decades. Iranian officials are deliberately contributing to the consolidation of impunity by destroying evidence and crime scenes." He emphasized that "the memory of the deceased cannot be easily erased or hidden under concrete." Shadi Sadr, a director at Justice for Iran, also stated that "the existing crime scenes must be preserved intact until independent and appropriate legal investigations are conducted to identify the remains of the deceased and understand what happened." The two organizations reported that satellite images from the period between June 2016 and September 2017 showed that in Tabriz, more than half of the probable location of a mass grave has been covered with concrete. In Qorveh, Kurdish officials have destroyed gravestones and memorial signs placed by grieving families at the graves, claiming that the land had "agricultural" usage, using bulldozers. The report also mentioned that in two probable mass grave sites in Behesht-e Reza cemetery in Mashhad and the Tajabad cemetery in Rasht, officials have built new graves over the mass graves and allocated them for new burials. Amnesty International had previously reported attempts to destroy a mass grave in Mashhad where around 170 political prisoners are buried. Additionally, a mass grave of the victims of these executions next to the former Revolutionary Court building in Sanandaj has been turned into part of a shopping area. According to the report, Iranian authorities have also turned the burial site of the victims of the 1988 executions in Ahvaz into a construction waste site and plan to convert it into a green space or commercial complex. Last year, Amnesty International urged Iranian officials to immediately stop the destruction of the mass grave of the victims of the 1988 executions in Ahvaz. The organization had previously reported in 2013 that the Iranian government is attempting to "erase the memory" of the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. Over the past three decades, Iranian security agencies have repeatedly destroyed the Khavaran cemetery in Tehran. Iranian officials rarely speak about the mass executions of prisoners in the summer of 1988, and the burial sites of these prisoners have never been officially announced. Meanwhile, Justice for Iran identified 120 locations in Iran where these victims may have been buried. Most of the executed prisoners that year were members of groups such as the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the 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 insist on their hypocrisy in prisons across the country." Many of those executed were buried anonymously in mass graves at Khavaran cemetery. The exact names and numbers of those executed that year remain unclear. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights reported at least 1,879 political prisoners executed, while Ayatollah Montazeri mentioned in his memoirs that the number was between 2,800 and 3,800, emphasizing that he does not remember the exact figure. In 2016, an audio file from August 15, 1988, was released in which Ayatollah Montazeri referred to these executions as "the greatest crime of the Islamic Republic." Security agents also prevented memorial ceremonies for the 1988 executed victims at Khavaran. The defense of Khomeini's grandson regarding the executions of the 1980s in Iran continues in response to Montazeri's audio file. Questions have arisen regarding the validity of rumors about the events of 1988.