In a recent interview, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a candidate in the 14th presidential election of the Iranian regime, referred to his role in the execution of political prisoners in the 1980s, calling these executions a “project of the Islamic Republic” and “the regime’s difficult moments.”
Pourmohammadi, one of the main members of the execution committee known as the “Death Committee” in the summer of 1988, emphasized in an online program released on Sunday, June 23, that only those who were members of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and “fought against the people” were given death sentences by various responsible committees.
In the months of August and September 1988, nearly 30,000 political and ideological prisoners, mainly members of the PMOI, were executed in Iranian prisons.
These prisoners were handed over to execution squads by the order of then–regime supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini and were subsequently buried in mostly unmarked graves in Khavaran Cemetery in southeast Tehran.
Pourmohammadi, who was the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence in Evin Prison at the time, along with Hossein Ali Nayeri (the Sharia judge), Morteza Eshraghi (then Tehran’s prosecutor), and Ebrahim Raisi (then deputy prosecutor and later president of the Iranian regime who was killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024), met with Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then deputy leader of the regime.
According to an audio file released from this meeting, Montazeri referred to the 1988 massacre as a historical crime and said: “In my opinion, the greatest crime committed in the Islamic Republic, from the beginning of the revolution until now, has been carried out by you. In the future, you will be remembered as criminals in history.”
In another part of the interview, Pourmohammadi, referring to the fact that the 1980s were very different from today, claimed: “The people were our supporters, they were of the same mind as us, and in fact, the people’s demands were more radical and they called for harsher sentences.”
He pointed out that during the executions, “30 committees” were active in Iran, each with three to five members, and said that he “was not responsible for this work and was not part of the security team.”
Regarding his involvement and invitation to these committees, he claimed that at that time, he was invited and told to “control things a bit to prevent radicalism.”
Mostafa Pourmohammadi continued: “If the officials of the regime at that time had today’s experiences, they would have made arrangements to significantly reduce the margins of this action.”
However, he emphasized that “decisive and serious action certainly has its consequences.”
This presidential candidate also stated in a television program on June 14 that the PMOI intended to form a “government” after Operation Eternal Light, with the participation of those he called “prisoners and others and their supporters.”
Human rights activists say that the Iranian regime executed these prisoners without any legal process and that they had no new charges in their files. Many of these prisoners had completed their sentences or were serving their terms. However, the Death Committee, in trials lasting a few minutes and with a few questions, directly sent them to the execution squads simply for refusing to disown their support for the PMOI.
Ebrahim Raisi had previously called these executions an act of “defending human rights.” It is worth noting that Pourmohammadi himself has also defended the 1988 massacre on several occasions and has expressed his desire to “settle scores” with the remaining members of the PMOI.
None of the perpetrators and commanders of this massacre were tried. Hamid Nouri, a former deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison, was arrested in Sweden in November 2019 for involvement in the execution of political prisoners in the 1980s and was sentenced to life imprisonment after trial. However, on the evening of Saturday, June 14, Hamid Nouri was welcomed by Iranian officials at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran after being exchanged for Johan Flodros and Saeed Azizi, two Swedish citizens held hostage by Iran’s regime.
Amnesty International also issued a statement on this matter and strongly condemned this action.
