On Sunday, January 17, Iranians, Supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) demonstrated in Sweden, Stockholm, in Front of the Parliament, demanding justice for the Martyrs of the 1988 Massacre.
They chanted slogans against Hamid Nouri (known as Hamid Abbasi, a criminal who was one of the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of MEK political prisoners), who is now in custody in Sweden for his role in the 1988 massacre. Some of these slogans include: “Nouri, the criminal – the trial is before you,” “Justice, justice – against murderers” “Seeking Justice for the martyrs is our inalienable right.”
Background
In summer 1988 the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially executed over 30,000 political prisoners held in jails across Iran. The massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by the regime’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
Most of the victims were members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Members of the Death Commissions, who at the time sent the prisoners to gallows, include the regime’s current Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi and Justice Minister Alireza Avaei.
Seven United Nations human rights experts wrote a letter to Iran’s regime in September 2020, published in December, describing the 1988 massacre as “crimes against humanity.”
“There is a systemic impunity enjoyed by those who ordered and carried out the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. To date, no official in Iran has been brought to justice and many of the officials involved continue to hold positions of power including in key judicial, prosecutorial and government bodies responsible for ensuring the victims receive justice,” the UN experts wrote.
The UN experts also criticized the international community’s inaction regarding the 1988 massacre. They underlined that this inaction “had a devastating impact on the survivors and families as well as on the general situation of human rights in Iran and emboldened Iran to continue to conceal the fate of the victims and to maintain a strategy of deflection and denial that continue to date.”
