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1988 Massacre Iran Human Rights Documentation Center The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) believes that the development of an accountability movement and a culture of human rights in Iran are crucial to the long-term peace and security of the country and the Middle East region. As numerous examples have illustrated, the removal of an authoritarian regime does not necessarily lead to an improved human rights situation if institutions and civil society are weak, or if a culture of human rights and democratic governance has not been cultivated. By providing Iranians with comprehensive human rights reports, data about past and present human rights violations and information about international human rights standards, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the IHRDC programs will strengthen Iranians’ ability to demand accountability, reform public institutions, and promote transparency and respect for human rights. Encouraging a culture of human rights within Iranian society as a whole will allow political and legal reforms to have real and lasting weight. The IHRDC seeks to: Establish a comprehensive and objective historical record of the human rights situation in Iran since the 1979 revolution, and on the basis of this record, establish responsibility for patterns of human rights abuses; Make such record available in an archive that is accessible to the public for research and educational purposes; Promote accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law in Iran; and Encourage an informed dialogue on the human rights situation in Iran among scholars and the general public in Iran and abroad. Iran Human Rights Documentation Center 129 Church Street New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA Tel: +1-(203)-772-2218 Fax: +1-(203)-772-1782 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.iranhrdc.org Photographs: The front cover painting is by Soudabeh Ardavan, an artist and a survivor of the 1988 prison massacre. The portrait is of the Deputy Minister of Intelligence in 1988, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, who represented the Ministry of Intelligence on the Death Commission of Tehran. Photographs used throughout the report were obtained online. © 2009 All Rights Reserved. Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, New Haven, Connecticut Deadly Fatwa: Iran’s 1988 Prison Massacre Iran Human Rights Documentation Center September 2009 Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1 1. The Victims..........................................................................................................................................3 1.1 Mojahedin-e Khalq......................................................................................................................3 1.2 The Tudeh Party of Iran...............................................................................................................5 1.3 Fedaian-e Khalq...........................................................................................................................6 1.4 Other Leftist Groups....................................................................................................................6 2. Khomeini’s Fatwa ...............................................................................................................................7 2.1 Clerical objections.......................................................................................................................9 3. Planning for the Massacre................................................................................................................10 3.1 Prisoners are Interrogated..........................................................................................................12 3.2 Prisoners are Reorganized .........................................................................................................13 4. The Massacre.....................................................................................................................................14 4.1 The Prisons are Locked Down...................................................................................................15 4.2 Interrogations, Executions and Torture .....................................................................................17 4.3 Tehran: Gohar Dasht and Evin Prisons .....................................................................................18 4.3.1 Gohar Dasht..........................................................................................................................18 4.3.2 Evin .......................................................................................................................................27 4.4 Shiraz.........................................................................................................................................36 4.5 Tabriz.........................................................................................................................................37 4.6 Dezful ........................................................................................................................................39 4.7 Zanjan........................................................................................................................................41 4.8 Esfahan ......................................................................................................................................42 4.9 Hamedan....................................................................................................................................43 4.10 Ahvaz.........................................................................................................................................44 4.11 Zahedan .....................................................................................................................................46 4.12 Mashhad ....................................................................................................................................46 4.13 Rasht..........................................................................................................................................48 5. The Government Denies Families Information and Forbids Mourning......................................49 6. Violations of International and Iranian Law .................................................................................54 6.1 Violations of International Human Rights Law.........................................................................54 6.1.1 Summary Mass Executions....................................................................................................55 6.1.2 Torture...................................................................................................................................55 6.1.3 Interrogations........................................................................................................................56 6.1.4 Violation of rights to freedom of expression and association...............................................57 6.1.5 Forced disappearances .........................................................................................................58 6.1.6 Violation of right to redress ..................................................................................................60 6.2 Crimes Against Humanity .........................................................................................................60 6.3 Violations of Iranian Law..........................................................................................................62 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................63 Introduction In late July 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran began summarily interrogating, torturing and executing thousands of political prisoners throughout the country. The massacre continued into the fall. Well- planned and deliberately accomplished in secret, the massacre effectively eliminated any remaining political opposition to then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime. Although the exact number of victims is not known, thousands of prisoners were tortured and executed over the course of only a few months. The victims included prisoners who had served their sentences but had refused to recant their political beliefs, prisoners who were serving sentences of imprisonment, people who had been detained for lengthy periods but had not been convicted, and former prisoners who were rearrested. Many had been arrested when they were teenagers for commission of low-level offenses such as distribution of pamphlets. The political views of the victims stretched from support for the Mojahedin-e Khalq (Mojahedin), a Marxist- Islamic Party that had engaged in violence in an effort to overthrow Khomeini, to support for the Tudeh Party, a secular Marxist party that until 1983, supported the regime. This was not the first time the Islamic Republic had executed thousands of its political opponents or even the first time the regime had executed its opponents en masse.1 However, the 1988 massacre stands out for the systematic way in which it was planned and carried out, the short time period in which it took place throughout the country, the arbitrary method used to determine victims, the sheer number of victims, and the fact that the regime took
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