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Date | July–December 1988 (some sources say July–September)[1] |
---|---|
Location | Iran |
Type | Mass execution |
Target | Political opposition groups, most notably the MEK, OIPFM and the Tudeh Party of Iran |
Deaths | 2,800 to 30,000 people killed[2] (exact number unknown)[3][4][5][6] |
Starting on 19 July 1988 and continuing for approximately five months, a series of mass executions of political prisoners ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini and carried out by Iranian officials took place across Iran.[7][8][9][10][11][12] Many prisoners were also tortured.[13][14][15] The killings took place in at least 32 cities across the country.[14] The killings were perpetrated without any legislative basis and trials were not concerned with establishing the guilt or innocence of defendants.[16] Great care was taken to conceal the killings, and the government of Iran currently denies their occurrence.[17]
The exact number of those killed is unknown, with various estimates by human rights organizations up to 5,000 people killed.[18][3] Human Rights Watch puts the estimate at between 2,800 and 30,000 people killed,[2] while Amnesty International estimates at least 30,000 killed.[13]
Reportedly, the majority of those who were killed were supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MeK), but supporters of other leftist factions, including the Fedaian and the Tudeh Party of Iran (Communist Party), were also executed.[19][20]: 209–228 Various motives have been offered for the executions of the victims, including that the victims were executed in retaliation for the 1988 attack on the western borders of Iran by the MeK, (although members of other leftist groups which never supported or took part in the Mujahedin's invasion were also targeted for execution).[20]: 218
Survivors of the massacre have made numerous calls for redress and they have also called for the prosecution of those who perpetrated the attack.[8] The massacres have been called "Iran's greatest crime against humanity",[21] without precedent in modern Iranian history both in terms of scope and cover-up,[20]: 201 and have been denounced by deputy Supreme Leader of Iran at the time Ayatollah Montazeri,[22] the United Nations Human Rights Council,[23] and a number of countries such as Sweden,[24] Canada,[7] and Italy.
It is estimated that as many as 30,000 individuals may have been executed at that time, in response to a religious edict issued by Ayatollah Khomeini that there was no room for apostates in his Islamic republic. Ayatollah Montazeri also alluded to this tragedy in his memoirs (published in 2001) and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center's detailed report on the executions notes that estimates of those killed range from 1,000 to 30,000. See IHRDC, Deadly Fatwa: Iran's 1988 Prison Massacre (New Haven, CT: IHRDC, 2009). The insider's account is provided by Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Khatirat-i Ayatollah Montazeri, Majmu'iyyih Payvastha va Dastnivisha [Memoir of Ayatollah Montazeri, the Collection of Appendices and Handwritten Notes] (2001).
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