Six Religious Thinkers: Ahmad Montazeri's Sentence is a Mockery of Justice

Six religious thinkers issued a statement condemning the special clerical court's ruling regarding Ahmad Montazeri as "a mockery of justice and a violation of law," as well as contrary to human rights principles, Islamic Republic laws, religious jurisprudence, and fairness. The statement also noted that the "repeated emphasis on the secrecy" of the audio file of Ayatollah Montazeri's meeting with the decision-making committee regarding the execution of political prisoners in 1988 "is evidence of an effort to conceal this crime." Abdolali Bazargan, Mohsen Kadivar, Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari, Mohammad Barghai, Hassan Farshchian, and Sedigheh Vosoughi signed this statement, which was published on the Zeytoon website on Wednesday, December 1. These six religious thinkers described the execution of political prisoners in 1988 as "one of the darkest pages in the Islamic Republic's record" and the release of Ayatollah Montazeri's audio file as "a reaffirmation of the illegality and un-Islamic nature" of these executions. The statement emphasized that "the ruling issued in this so-called court decision is a mockery of justice and a violation of law." Ahmad Montazeri was sentenced to ten years in prison for "acting against national security," ten years for releasing a "classified" audio file, and one year for "propaganda against the regime." In an interview with Radio Farda on Tuesday, Mr. Montazeri described his 21-year prison sentence as "illogical" and "irrelevant," stating that the purpose of this ruling was to pressure him to hand over unpublished documents and audio files of Ayatollah Montazeri to security agencies. The special clerical court also deemed the release of Ayatollah Montazeri's audio file during the meeting about the executions as "inappropriate for the clergy" and sentenced Ahmad Montazeri to be defrocked, although the execution of this sentence has been suspended for three years. Meanwhile, these six religious thinkers emphasized that the release of this audio file "is not only not an act contrary to Islamic law and the dignity of the clergy, but is also a fulfillment of a religious duty, deserving of reward, and a voice from within the clergy that has been expected and should have been heard more and earlier." According to the authors of this statement, "fairness requires that the claims made in that tape be seriously reviewed and revisited, and ethics necessitate that the grievances of the oppressed and victims of that massacre be addressed." The statement stressed that "the repeated emphasis on the secrecy of this audio file in the issued ruling is itself evidence of the occurrence of these crimes and the effort to conceal them." These six religious thinkers called on defenders of the 1988 "massacre" to present "sufficient religious, rational, and legal reasons for defending this crime" instead of hiding, and to justify it to public opinion. According to the authors of this statement, those who have called these executions "a source of pride" and "a fulfillment of duty" should "not only not be concerned about recounting their record of honors but should have taken action to publish this document of pride." Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the only member of the decision-making committee regarding the executions who reacted to the release of Ayatollah Montazeri's audio file, stated that he "takes pride in his role in this event." The website of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the dismissed deputy of Ayatollah Khomeini, published an audio file from August 24, 1988, where this Shia authority referred to the executions that year in Iran as "the greatest crime of the Islamic Republic." In this audio file, Ayatollah Montazeri described the summer executions of 1988 as "the greatest crime of the Islamic Republic" and stated that history will condemn us for this crime. Ayatollah Montazeri called the judicial officials present at the meeting responsible for these executions and "criminals." The judicial officials present at this meeting included Hossein Ali Niri, the then Sharia judge, Morteza Eshraqi, the then Tehran prosecutor, Ebrahim Raisi, the then deputy prosecutor, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence at Evin Prison at that time.