Reaction of the People's Mojahedin Organization Following the Release of Ayatollah Montazeri's Audio File

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran reacted to the release of an audio file from a meeting of Ayatollah Montazeri with officials responsible for the 1988 executions, once again calling for the "trial of the leaders of the Islamic Republic regime and the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre for genocide and crimes against humanity." The official website of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran wrote on Thursday, August 12, that "the release of the shocking tape of Montazeri's remarks during a meeting with members of the Death Committee 28 years ago reveals new dimensions of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and shows that the regime's leaders must be held accountable for the most heinous crime against humanity, executed in prisons under a command for collective destruction and genocide." Mohammad Mohaddessin, an official of the organization and head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, reiterated a similar demand in an interview with Al Arabiya. According to Mohaddessin, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran "draws the attention of the international community, especially the Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council, to the necessity of referring this case to a competent international court." He added that "indifference to the largest massacre of political prisoners since World War II, despite clear documents and evidence, is a blatant violation of the recognized values of human rights, peace, and democracy, for which the United Nations was established." Most of those executed in 1988 in Iran were members or supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization. These prisoners were executed while they had previously been tried and sentenced for their original charges and were serving their sentences. Various sources cite the number of executed individuals as between two thousand and five thousand, but the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran claims that the actual number was around 30,000. New discussions about the mass execution of political and ideological prisoners in 1988 coincided with the anniversary of these executions and arose after the office of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then-deputy leader of the Islamic Republic, released the audio file of his meeting with four members of the committee that decided on the executions. In this audio file, Ayatollah Montazeri described the summer 1988 executions as "the greatest crime of the Islamic Republic" and stated that "history will condemn us for this crime." The judicial officials present at this meeting included Hossein Ali Niri, the then Islamic judge, Morteza Eshraqi, the then prosecutor of Tehran, Ebrahim Raisi, the then deputy prosecutor, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the then representative of the Ministry of Intelligence in Evin Prison. Hossein Ali Niri is now the deputy of the Supreme Court, Ebrahim Raisi is the custodian of the Astan Quds Razavi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi is the Minister of Justice in Hassan Rouhani's government. According to Ayatollah Montazeri, the order for the execution of those political prisoners was issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the first leader of the Islamic Republic.