{"id":27823,"date":"2021-10-26T07:27:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T05:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=27823"},"modified":"2021-10-26T07:27:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T05:27:03","slug":"still-waiting-for-justice-for-victims-three-decades-after-the-1988-massacre-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2021\/10\/still-waiting-for-justice-for-victims-three-decades-after-the-1988-massacre-in-iran\/27823\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Waiting for Justice for Victims, Three Decades After the 1988 Massacre in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-three years after the 1988 massacre<\/a> in Iran, the longstanding inaction from the international community to hold the regime officials, who were involved in the atrocities, accountable for their crimes against humanity continues to raise the question as to whether justice will ever be served for the victims and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the summer of 1988<\/a>, 30,000 political prisoners were executed by the Iranian regime following the issue of a fatwa by then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the executions of those who refused to denounce their support of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hossein Farsi <\/a>was an inmate at the Gohardasht prison during the massacre, charged with being a supporter of the MEK <\/a>and recalled that a large number of his friends, colleagues and cellmates were among the victims of the massacre, so he has spent the past 33 years honouring their memories by advocating for justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MEK <\/a>and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)<\/a> have continuously called for investigations to be launched to look into the 1988 massacre, and for the perpetrators to be prosecuted internationally for their crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NCRI said<\/a>, \u201cIn recent months, multiple legal scholars have even made the case for the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre to face charges of genocide, based on evidence that the killings were motivated not just by animosity toward the MEK\u2019s politics, but also by its role as an embodiment of true Islamic views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regime\u2019s new president, Ebrahim Raisi<\/a> was serving as a deputy prosecutor in the late 1980s when he was selected as one of four officials of the \u2018death commission\u2019 in Tehran. This panel of judges were tasked with interrogating prisoners in minute-long trials to gage their loyalties. If they refused to denounce the MEK, the inmates were sent straight to the gallows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n