Political prisoners executed in various prisons in Ahvaz, a city in the southwest of Iran, are buried in complete secrecy in a secret cemetery. The purpose of this is for families not to learn where their children are buried or to move their bodies.
The regime refuses to deliver the bodies of the executed political prisoners to their families:
“Most political prisoners are executed in Sheiban Prison without the knowledge of their families,” said a source who asked not to be identified. Judicial and intelligence agents do not deliver the body of an executed prisoner to his family at all. They are buried without the presence of his family and friends. The prisoner’s family must also promise that they will not hold any ceremonies for their loved ones.”
The source added: “The place where the executed prisoners in Ahvaz are buried is a mausoleum that people call the ‘Tomb of the Martyrs.’ But the agents of the murderous government, out of resentment against these political prisoners, have named this unknown shrine the ‘Damned Place’.”
It should be noted that similiar events occurred in most cities of the country in the 1980s. The burial place of Baha’i people or other minorities was called the damned place, and then the executed political prisoners who were mainly from the opposition MEK/PMOI and other leftist organizations were buried there.
Families are blindfolded and taken to their loved ones’ graves
The report on Ahvaz added: “Executed Iranian Arab political prisoners are not handed over to their families and are secretly buried. Cement is poured on the body and iron plates are placed. Then they bury them under the soil, and in order is given for the families not to be able to exhume the bodies of their children and take them out of the grave. They only put a metal plate with a number on each grave, and there is no trace of the executed person on the grave.”
Continuous torture of the families
A report on Ahvaz states that up to 48 hours after the execution of the executed prisoner, guards are placed around the burial place of the executed prisoner so that the family cannot find the burial place of their loved one. They even take the family blindfolded to the grave so that they do not learn the location of their child’s grave. These actions fit the pattern for what Amnesty International has called am ongoing crime. Keeping the family unaware of the time of execution and the burial of the executed person is a continuous torture of the person’s family.
The report further states that in the area called the damned place, government agents installed CCTV cameras so that none of the citizens and families can or dare to approach the graves.
It is said that this place was in fact the graveyard for people of other religions and minorities. But later they removed a piece from it and dedicated it to the burial place of political prisoners. The collection related to minorities and other religions has a painting of Ferdows Garden. But there are no plaques on the tombs of executed political prisoners. Each tomb has an iron plate that characterizes it.
