{"id":19164,"date":"2020-07-25T06:33:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T11:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=19164"},"modified":"2020-07-25T06:33:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T11:33:25","slug":"irans-1988-massacre-of-the-mek-worst-crime-against-humanity-since-ww2-geoffrey-robertson-qc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/2020\/07\/25\/irans-1988-massacre-of-the-mek-worst-crime-against-humanity-since-ww2-geoffrey-robertson-qc\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s 1988 Massacre of the MEK: \u201cWorst Crime Against Humanity Since WW2\u201d \u2013 Geoffrey Robertson QC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iranian regime\u00a0<\/span>carried out\u00a0<\/span>the massacre of over\u00a030,000 political<\/a>\u00a0prisoners in July 1988, based on<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0fa<\/span>twa (religious decree) issued by the regime\u2019s founder Ruhollah Khomeini.\u00a0<\/span>The only crime of\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>prisoners was<\/span>\u00a0their<\/span>\u00a0steadfastness on their political opinion<\/span>. Most<\/span>\u00a0of them were previously\u00a0<\/span>tried and\u00a0<\/span>had\u00a0<\/span>received sentences by the regime\u2019s Judiciary.\u00a0<\/span>Hence, this massacre, could be described as the worst crime against humanity since the World War2<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Iranian regime\u00a0<\/span>launched this massacre\u00a0<\/span>following<\/span>\u00a0its<\/span>\u00a0forced accept<\/span>ance<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0ceasefire with Iraq,<\/span>\u00a0since it was<\/span>\u00a0terrified of\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>possible social consequences and public uprising due to the extreme poverty and destruction\u00a0<\/span>brought about by the eight<\/span>\u00a0year<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0of unnecessary\u00a0<\/span>war<\/span>. Most of the victims were members and supporters of the Iranian opposition\u00a0People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(PMOI or MEK)<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>These executions<\/span>\u00a0were\u00a0<\/span>carried<\/span>\u00a0out\u00a0<\/span>and controlled by committee<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0dubbed as \u201cDeath Commission<\/span>s<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, 32 years ha<\/span>ve<\/span>\u00a0elapsed,<\/span>\u00a0yet<\/span>\u00a0this crime has\u00a0<\/span>gone\u00a0<\/span>unpunished. Many of the regime\u2019s current top officials were directly involved in this massacre, but they are<\/span>\u00a0today<\/span>\u00a0enjoying immunity, preventing\u00a0<\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0international<\/span>\u00a0community to\u00a0<\/span>hold them to account. These officials\u00a0<\/span>are<\/span>\u00a0the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei,<\/span>\u00a0who was<\/span>\u00a0at the time the<\/span>\u00a0mullahs\u2019 president<\/span>;<\/span>\u00a0Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, current head of the regime\u2019s Judiciary,\u00a0<\/span>key member of the central \u201cDeath Commission<\/span>;<\/span>\u201d and Alireza\u00a0<\/span>Ava<\/span>e<\/span>i<\/span>, the regime\u2019s current Minister of Justice, then prosecutor in Khuzestan province.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the 28<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0anniversary of the\u00a01988 massacre<\/a>, Mrs.\u00a0Maryam\u00a0<\/a><\/span>Rajavi<\/span><\/a>, the president-elect of the\u00a0National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)<\/a><\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0initi<\/span>ated<\/span>\u00a0a movement for j<\/span>ustice\u00a0<\/span>for the\u00a0<\/span>v<\/span>ictims of the 1988\u00a0<\/span>m<\/span>assacre<\/span>\u00a0which has since then received international support.\u00a0<\/span>This movement played a significant role in foiling Khamenei\u2019s scheme in the regime\u2019s presidential elections in 2017 where he intended to engineer the election of\u00a0Raisi<\/a><\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0The campaign was so effective that the regime\u2019s president, Hassan Rouhani<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0used it to attract more votes for himself. Opportunistically, he said Raisi did not have anything on his record except 38 years of executions and imprisonments.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the movement continued to gain more international support, the regime started a campaign which it\u00a0<\/span>called \u201c<\/span>a complex multi-faceted operation.\u201d During this\u00a0<\/span>operation<\/span>\u00a0the regime recruited a mercenary to distort the objectives of the Call-for-Justice movement, and marginalize the MEK and their leadership, all the while the MEK\u2019s destruction was indeed the main goal of the 1988 massacre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan\u00a0<\/span>Ortagus<\/span>, the spokesperson of the United States State Department, in a video message on Twitter<\/span>, said:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cJuly 19th marks the<\/span>\u00a0anniversary of the start of Iran<\/span>\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0s<\/span>o-called death commissions<\/span>\u00a0on<\/span>\u00a0the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini. These commissions reportedly forcibly disappeared and extra judicially executed thousands of political dissident prisoners. The current head of the Iranian judiciary and current minister of justice have both been identified as former members of these death commissions. The Iranian judiciary is widely perceived to lack independence and fair trial guarantees. And the revolutionary courts are particularly egregious in ordering violations of human rights. All Iranian officials who commit human rights violations or abuses should be held accountable. The United States calls on the international community to conduct independent investigations and do provide accountability and justice for the victims of these horrendous violations of human rights, organized by the Iranian regime<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>second day of the\u00a0<\/span>NCRI\u2019s \u201cFree Iran Global Summit\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>on July 19, 2020,\u00a0<\/span>was over the\u00a01988 massacre<\/a>. This event was attended by renowned human rights advocates.\u00a0<\/span>One of the speakers\u00a0<\/span>at\u00a0<\/span>this event was former United Nations\u00a0<\/span>j<\/span>udge and renowned human rights lawyer,\u00a0<\/span>Geoffrey Robertson QC<\/span>. Mr. Robertson has studied the 1988 massacre for years and even published a book about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The following is the full text of Mr. Geoffrey Robertson QC. speech during the NCRI\u2019s conference:<\/h3>\n

Good evening, Madam\u00a0<\/span>Rajavi<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am privileged to join the commemoration with you of the thousands of martyrs of the prison\u00a0massacre of 1988<\/a>. Now, some years ago, I was asked to do an investigation of what\u00a0<\/span>actually happened<\/span>\u00a0because the world didn\u2019t really know about it. I went through Europe by interviewed about 40 survivors of that dreadful period 32 years ago. And I was\u00a0<\/span>staggered<\/span>\u00a0and I produced a report. With this book, Mullahs Without Mercy the message that I was able to explain to the world outside Iran, the world that hadn\u2019t been aware, that this was worst of all crime, this worst crime against humanity since the concentration camps of the Second World War. This is how I described in my report. After all that study, what happened 32 years ago. I said this, late in July 1988 as the war with Iraq was ending, in a truculent truce, prisons in Iran, suddenly went into lockdown, all family visits were canceled, televisions and radios switched off, the newspapers discontinued, prisoners were kept in their cell and disallowed exercise or could go to the hospital. The only permitted visitation was from a delegation, turbaned and bearded, which came in black government BMWs to outlying jails. A religious judge, a public prosecutor, and an intelligence chief before them were paraded briefly and individually almost every prisoner. And there were thousands of them who had been jailed for adherence to the\u00a0Mojahedin-e-Khaleq Organization<\/a>, the MEK and the delegation had one question to these young men and women, most of them had been detained actually since 1981, merely for taking part in street protests or possession of political reading material. And many of them were what is called \u201c<\/span>melikesh<\/span>\u201d, meaning they have served their sentence and were being wrongly in jail. Nonetheless, they were asked one question on which their lives depend on the answer. Those who indicated that they had a continuing affiliation with the\u00a0MEK<\/a>\u00a0were blindfolded and ordered to join a line that led straight to the gallows. They were hung from cranes. For the time or in groups of six from ropes hanging from the front of the stage in an assembly or some were taken to army barracks at night, directed to make their wills and then shot by firing squad. Their bodies were doused with disinfectant, packed in refrigerated trucks and buried by night in mass graves. Months later, their families desperate for information about their children or their \u2026 would be handed a plastic bag with their few possessions, they\u2019d be refused any information about the location of the graves. And ordered never to morn in the public. by mid-August\u00a01988 thousands<\/a>\u00a0of prisoners had been killed in this manner by the state without trial, without appeal and utterly without mercy. And of course, it got worse, Ayatollah\u00a0<\/span>Montazeri<\/span>, a true hero, tried to stop it, but he was outmaneuvered by those some of whom are alive and who must be held accountable\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t accountability because the U.N. was weak at that time\u2026 and failed then in its duty. We must hold these people accountable because many of them are still alive.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, is there any hope of accountability now? People are tearing down statues of slave traders, and they will tear down the statues of the ayatollahs. They will rewrite the history of Iran with the truth, the truth of the bloodthirstiness, the truth of the barbarity which future generations of Iranians will want to erase is just as the German people were able to condemn and erase were Nazis and their horrors.\u00a0\u00a0 Britain and Canada and America, Australia, and the countries that have these targeted sanctions and laws should target the surviving masterminds of the\u00a01988<\/a>\u00a0barbarities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Name them, shame them and blame them, because, in that way, we can go on the offensive against the perpetrators of one of the worst since the war, one of the worst crimes against humanity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Iranian regime\u00a0carried out\u00a0the massacre of over\u00a030,000 political\u00a0prisoners in July 1988, based on\u00a0a\u00a0fatwa (religious decree) issued by the regime\u2019s founder Ruhollah Khomeini.\u00a0The only crime of\u00a0the\u00a0prisoners […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":19165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19166,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164\/revisions\/19166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}