Security Forces Block Families of Executed Political Prisoners from Entering Khavaran

Security agents of the Islamic Republic prevented families from Khavaran from entering to commemorate political prisoners executed in the 1980s. According to the Telegram channel 'Charter of Freedom, Welfare, Equality', a group of families seeking justice for the political prisoners executed in the 1980s went to Khavaran cemetery on Friday, March 4, to honor their loved ones, but security agents blocked the cemetery's entrance and demanded their national ID cards. The families opposed this request and ultimately honored the memory of the executed by placing and scattering their flowers in front of the cemetery entrance. The channel noted that the families of Khavaran have faced harassment and intimidation from security and military forces for over 40 years while trying to visit their loved ones' graves, showering them with flowers, and holding memorial ceremonies. The channel also reported that for over two years, despite the resistance of the Baha'i families and the opposition from Khavaran families, members of the Baha'i community have been buried in a part of Khavaran where mass graves of executed prisoners are located. Additionally, security forces have destroyed parts of the graves of political prisoners executed in the 1980s. In this context, the Khavaran families fear that with the continuation of this trend, any evidence of the crime of the political prisoners' massacre in the summer of 1988 will be lost. Thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, especially in the summer of 1988, were executed due to their membership in groups and organizations such as the People's Mujahedin of Iran, the Tudeh Party of Iran, and the Fadaiyan Khalq (majority and minority), or for supporting them. The executions of the summer of 1988 were carried out by a committee appointed by Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic. Ebrahim Raisi, the President of Iran, was also a member of the committee responsible for the summer 1988 massacre. The channel reported that the Khavaran families have repeatedly condemned any destruction or alteration in Khavaran, considering it a desecration of the bodies of their beloved ones and have called for a halt to the burial of deceased Baha'is in Khavaran.