Mostafa Pourmohammadi Refers to 1988 Executions in His Election Campaign on Television

Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a key figure in the mass executions of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, made statements during a campaign program against members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, including imprisoned members of this organization. This presidential candidate said on Friday, June 15, that the Mojahedin-e Khalq intended to establish a government with the participation of those he referred to as 'prisoners and others and their supporters' after the operation known as 'Eternal Light.' However, he did not provide new details about the execution of these prisoners and did not take responsibility for it, although he had previously defended this action. Human rights activists say that the Islamic Republic executed these prisoners without any legal process, and they had no new charges against them. Official authorities of the Islamic Republic have not yet provided a clear response regarding these executions and have not taken responsibility for them. Ibrahim Raisi had previously described these executions as an action in 'defense of human rights.' 'Eternal Light' was an operation carried out by the Mojahedin-e Khalq six days after Iran accepted UN Resolution 598 for a ceasefire with Iraq. Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, had promised that the organization's forces would reach Tehran within 48 hours, but the response from the armed forces of the Islamic Republic in the form of 'Operation Mersad' dealt a heavy blow to this organization, resulting in the deaths of many Mojahedin-e Khalq forces. Meanwhile, during the months of August and September 1988, a large number of political-ideological prisoners, mainly members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq or leftist and communist parties and groups, were executed in Iranian prisons. These prisoners were handed over to execution squads by the decree of Ruhollah Khomeini and were mostly buried in unmarked graves in the Khavaran cemetery in southeastern Tehran. Pourmohammadi, who was the Minister of Justice in Hassan Rouhani's government, was one of the main members of the execution committee known as the 'Death Commission' in the summer of 1988. Pourmohammadi, who was then the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence in Evin, met with Hossein Ali Nouri (the Sharia judge), Morteza Eshraqi (the then prosecutor of Tehran), and Ibrahim Raisi (the then deputy prosecutor) along with Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then deputy leader of the Islamic Republic. According to an audio file released from this meeting, Montazeri referred to the 1988 massacre as a historical crime and said: 'In my opinion, the greatest crime committed in the Islamic Republic from the beginning of the revolution until now has been done by you. In the future, you will be remembered as historical criminals.' In 2012, a court was held regarding the 1988 executions with the presence of witnesses and families of the victims, as well as international judges at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The international judges in this court, where no defendant participated, termed the 1988 executions as 'crimes against humanity.' Additionally, Hamid Noury, a former deputy prosecutor in the Islamic Republic's judiciary during the execution of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, was arrested on November 9, 2019, upon arriving at Stockholm Airport on a direct flight from Iran. The proceedings regarding Hamid Noury's charges in the Swedish judiciary lasted 93 sessions, where dozens of plaintiffs, witnesses, and experts spoke and testified, and ultimately, Hamid Noury was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2022 for his participation in the mass execution of political prisoners. The court stated in its ruling that Hamid Noury, as the deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison, 'personally selected prisoners and took them to the meetings of the committee known as the Death Commission and from there took them to the execution site.' Hamid Noury's lawyers appealed, but on December 19, 2023, the appellate court in Sweden announced its final ruling in Hamid Noury's case and upheld his life sentence. The Supreme Court of Sweden rejected Hamid Noury's request for a review of the life sentence.