Rights group urges “justice” 20 years after mass executions
By: IranVNC
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008
00:08GMT—8:08PM/EST
IRAN – EXECUTIONS – 1988 – AMNESTY
Washington, 24 August (IranVNC)—Amnesty International has renewed its call for Iran to hold accountable those responsible for the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners in Iran, according to a press release issued in London on August 20.
In all, between 4,500 and 5,000 prisoners are believed to have been killed in prisons throughout Iran. Many of them were buried in unmarked graves in Khavaran Cemetery, south of Tehran.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, the relatives of the dead have planned to visit the tombs of their loved ones, on or around August 29, and to demand justice for those who were executed.
Amnesty warned “Amnesty International fears that the Iranian authorities may seek to impede or disperse any protests and reminds the Iranian government of its obligations under international law to allow for those who gather peacefully to express their views without fear of arrest,” the statement read.
The massive wave of executions of political prisoners began in August 1988 and continued until shortly before the tenth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in February 1989, Amnesty says. It was the largest summary execution since the early days of Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Amnesty has reiterated that there should be no impunity for those who are responsible for such crimes, regardless of the passage of time.
According to the report, “international human rights law requires” that Iran “carry out thorough and impartial investigations into violations of the right to life such as those which were committed during the ‘prison massacre’, which began in 1988 and continued into the following year, and to identify and bring to justice those responsible.”
Amnesty continues: “The failure to do so to date, and the time that has elapsed since the killings do not in any way reduce this responsibility.”
The group calls for the responsible parties to be brought to justice. They “should be prosecuted and tried before a regularly and legally constituted court and with all necessary procedural guarantees, in accordance with international fair trial standards. If found guilty, they should be punished with appropriate penalties which take into account the grave nature of the crimes,” Amnesty says.
Amnesty, though, rules out “death penalty or corporal punishments” for those who may be convicted.
According to the website of the dissident Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri, the number of dissidents slain in Iran in those months was estimated to be 2,500 to 2,800. Many had nearly completed their prison terms. Montazeri, who had been chosen as Khomeini’s successor, was disinherited because of his protests against the killings.
Sources: Amnesty International, Ayatollah Montazeri’s website
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(Original article written in Persian.)