{"id":89947,"date":"2026-08-28T01:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=89947"},"modified":"2026-08-27T22:05:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:05:54","slug":"from-the-1988-massacre-to-todays-executions-irans-unfinished-cycle-of-repression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/1988-massacre\/2026\/08\/from-the-1988-massacre-to-todays-executions-irans-unfinished-cycle-of-repression\/89947\/","title":{"rendered":"From the 1988 Massacre to Today\u2019s Executions: Iran\u2019s Unfinished Cycle of Repression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Iranian
Iranian political prisoners continue to resist executions, keeping the memory of the 1988 massacre alive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The story of executions in Iran did not begin with the death sentences being carried out in the country\u2019s prisons today. It reaches back to one of the darkest episodes in the history of the Iranian regime: the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thousands of prisoners were killed following proceedings that, in many cases, lasted only minutes. Many of those executed had already served their prison terms or were nearing the end of their sentences. The People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK<\/a>) constituted the overwhelming majority of those targeted, according to accounts and documentation produced over the decades by Iranian opposition groups and human-rights investigators.<\/p>\n

The killings were carried out through special judicial bodies later known as the \u201cdeath commissions<\/a>.\u201d Prisoners were subjected to brief interrogations designed to determine their political allegiance and willingness to submit to the authorities. Those who failed to satisfy the commissions were taken away and executed.<\/p>\n

The victims were not given the protections normally associated with a judicial process. Their families were frequently kept uninformed about their fate, while the locations of many burial sites were concealed or left undisclosed.<\/p>\n

The scale of the killings and the secrecy surrounding them meant that the massacre became a defining symbol of impunity in Iran. No international tribunal was established to prosecute those responsible, and decades passed without a judicial process capable of addressing the crime.<\/p>\n

That absence of accountability has become inseparable from the continuing debate over executions in Iran.<\/p>\n