NCRI – The massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran 25 years ago must be recognised as a genocide and the perpetrators brought to justice, a leading Belgium lawmaker has demanded.
The call by Senator Dirk Claes, the president of the Belgian Committee of Parliamentarians for a Democratic Iran, comes after repeated calls from the international community to investigate the Iranian regime for the 1988 atrocity.
Mr Claes said: “The massacre of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 must be recognised as a crime against humanity
“The summary executions of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 in Iran is one of the worst crimes in contemporary history, but it still remains relatively unknown in the West.
“From August through September 1988, thousands of political prisoners mostly from the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) were executed in various prisons across Iran. It happened as a result of the fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini.
“Every prisoner was asked simply if they were prepared to denounce the PMOI. Those who answered no were sent to the gallows immediately. Amnesty International and other organizations have made detailed reports about the cruelty of the killings.
“The exact numbers and details of the executions, their places and the mass graves are still unknown. Many of the victims were buried in unmarked graves in Khavaran cemetery in Tehran.
“Twenty five years after that horrendous crime no independent body has been able to investigate those killings. Most of those involved in that crime are still alive and maintain high positions in the Iranian regime.”
Mr Claes named Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as one of the three-member ‘Death committee’ who ordered and carried out all those executions, and has now been appointed as the new Minister of Justice by the so called ‘moderate’ President Hassan Rouhani.
He added: “It is now time for the international community to bring these criminals to international tribunals.
“We call on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights violations in Iran, to form a special fact-finding mission investigating this massacre and send the dossier of this crime to the UN Security Council.
“We call on human rights defenders and international jurists to join our call to form a tribunal to investigate and bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice. The 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran must be recognised as a crime against humanity by the United Nations.”
