Following the admission by Tehran’s deputy mayor regarding plans to build a parking lot in Section 41 of Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, Amnesty International condemned the move and called for an end to the harassment of the families of victims of the 1980s mass executions.
On August 11, the Iranian Resistance announced that Section 41 of Behesht-e Zahra cemetery—where thousands of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) executed by Iran’s regime in 1981 are buried—has been destroyed and leveled. The organization emphasized that erasing the evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity amounts to participation in these heinous crimes.
In a post on its X (formerly Twitter) account on August 22, Amnesty International expressed concern over the official statements by Tehran authorities, stressing that these graves are crime scenes and no one has the right to destroy them.
Iran's authorities are destroying vital evidence of the mass executions of dissidents in early 1980s by building a parking lot over their graves in Tehran’s Behesht Zahra cemetery. This is another grim reminder of systemic impunity for the crimes against humanity of that era. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/9cdTFoVbXs
— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) August 22, 2025
Amnesty International wrote: Iran’s authorities are destroying vital evidence of the mass executions of dissidents in early 1980s by building a parking lot over their graves in Tehran’s Behesht Zahra cemetery. This is another grim reminder of systemic impunity for the crimes against humanity of that era.
Tehran’s Deputy Mayor Davoud Goudarzi shockingly admitted that the graves in slot 41 of the cemetery were being destroyed with official permission from authorities. This move follows decades of cruel restrictions on families planting flowers or fixing desecrated gravestones.
Individual & mass graves from the 1980s mass executions are crime scenes requiring forensic expertise for exhumation and evidence preservation. By destroying them, authorities are concealing evidence of their crimes and hampering the rights to truth, justice & reparations.
Amnesty International previously documented how Iranian authorities have destroyed the graves of victims of 1980s killings through bulldozing, constructing buildings and roads, mass rubbish dumping or building new burial plots over them.
Iranian authorities have also destroyed or desecrated gravestones of victims of more recent human rights violations including members of the persecuted Baha’i minority & those unlawfully killed during the 2022 uprising.
Amnesty International added at the end: Amnesty International renews its calls on the Iranian authorities to stop the destruction & desecration of individual & mass graves of victims of 1980s mass executions. Authorities must stop deepening the pain of families & respect their right to bury their loved ones in dignity.
