Motahari's Question to Pourmohammadi: Are the Rumors About the 1988 Events True or Not?

In response to Mustafa Pourmohammadi's reaction to the audio file of Ayatollah Montazeri, a member of the decision-making committee regarding the executions of 1988, Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, officially asked Mr. Pourmohammadi to clarify the rumors "about the events of 1988." In his official letter, published on Saturday, September 6, by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), Mr. Motahari explicitly asks Mr. Pourmohammadi, the current Minister of Justice, whether the rumors regarding the events of 1988 concerning the implementation of Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini]'s decree are true or not. Mustafa Pourmohammadi, a member of the committee that decided on the execution of political and ideological prisoners in 1988, referred to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization as "vampire enemies of Iran" in response to the release of Ayatollah Montazeri's audio file, stating that "some are trying to cleanse" this group. The current Minister of Justice is the first member of the aforementioned committee to react to the release of this audio file. Pourmohammadi, as a representative of the Ministry of Intelligence, was part of the committee that, under the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini, the then leader of the Islamic Republic, made decisions regarding the execution of political and ideological prisoners in the summer of 1988. In the released audio file from Ayatollah Montazeri, he mentions Mr. Pourmohammadi's presence as a representative of the Ministry of Intelligence in this committee, stating that the Ministry had "had an opinion and invested" in the execution of political prisoners for years. However, throughout the approximately 40-minute audio file of the meeting between Ayatollah Montazeri and four members of the committee, none of the attendees refute or deny Montazeri's criticisms; they only attempt to explain their actions in places where laughter and joking are also present. This is a point that Ali Motahari implicitly refers to in his official letter, asking Mustafa Pourmohammadi to take a clear stance. Motahari wrote, "The problem of our country is that officials, instead of explaining an issue and answering a question that has arisen in some minds, engage in fallacies and exploit the human, religious, and revolutionary emotions of the people, and never respond to the question at hand." He adds, "You, who were alongside Mr. Raisi, Niyari, and Razini in the heart of this matter, should either explain the situation or state that these rumors are absolutely untrue, or acknowledge that there may have been shortcomings that, if proven, would lead to apologies and compensation for the families involved." Judicial officials present at the meeting with Ayatollah Montazeri included Hussein Ali Niyari, the then Sharia judge, Morteza Ashraqi, the then Tehran prosecutor, Ebrahim Raisi, the then deputy prosecutor, and Mustafa Pourmohammadi, the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence at Evin Prison at that time. Ali Motahari, who currently serves as the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament and is the son of Ayatollah Morteza Motahari, one of the founders of the Islamic government in Iran, also referred in his letter to a "common mindset" among high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic. According to Motahari, this belief among officials is that concealing and denying "possible errors" strengthens the regime. Previously, on Tuesday, August 16, Motahari had also called for explanations from those involved in the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran, including Mr. Pourmohammadi. Motahari's recent letter was published one day after reports indicated that the 28th anniversary ceremony of the mass executions of 1988 was held on Friday, September 5, in Khavaran, Tehran, the burial site of the executed. According to these reports, despite the presence of security forces, they did not prevent people from entering the area.