This year, plain-cloths agents of the notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) attacked the crowd of mourners beating and wounding some of them.
Suppressive agents tried hard to disperse the gathering of no avail.
The 1988 Iran Massacre
In 1988, in the span of several months, thousands of political prisoners in what is now known as 'the 1988 Iran massacre”' were brutally murdered.
In summer of 1988, in a shocking fatwa, Khomeini ordered the following:
"Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain committed to their support for the [People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK)], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution…. Destroy the enemies of Islam immediately. As regards the cases, use whichever criterion that speeds up the implementation of the [execution] verdict."
A special body, known to political prisoners as the 'Death Commission,' headed by Mostafa Pourmohammad, the Interior Minister carried out the fatwa. During hearings, prisoners were asked about their ideological and political allegiances. If there were even shred of doubt of sympathy with the opposition, particularly the PMOI, the prisoner would be sent to a firing squad.
The exact number of the victims is not known, given the swiftness and secrecy with which the inhuman fatwa was carried out. Estimates are up to 30,000 executed.
By any measure, the massacre of 1988 amounts to crime against humanity.
Many officials presently holding senior posts in the government of Iran were actively involved in conducting this hideous crime, and they must be brought to justice.
In a statement issued on November 2, 2007, concerning the arrest of several families of the victims of the 1988 massacre, Amnesty International wrote, "The executions were authorized at the highest level of the Iranian leadership… Amnesty International believes these executions amount to a crime against humanity. Under international law, valid in 1988, crimes against humanity consist of widespread or systematic attacks against civilians on discriminatory, including political, grounds. Amnesty International believes that there should be no impunity for human rights violations, no matter where or when they took place. The 1988 executions should be subject to an independent impartial investigation, and all those responsible should be brought to justice, and receive appropriate penalties."