NCRI – German-Iranian communities and supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) plan to stage a major demonstration in protest to the wave of executions in Iran and in solidarity with political prisoners, in Berlin on Saturday, September 3.
The demonstration and rally will include an elaborate exhibition and street theatres.
The Iranian authorities mass executed scores of people in the past two few weeks, and over 2600 people have been hanged under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani.
These executions coincide with the anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, when the Iranian regime summarily executed 30,000 political prisoners held in jails across the country. The majority of those executed were either serving prison sentences for their political activities or had already finished their sentences but were still kept in prison.
On August 9, an audio tape was published for the first time of Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s former heir, shedding new light on the scope and pace of the 1988 massacre. The executions were ordered by Death Committees appointed by Khomeini. Scores of the members of the Death Committees are cabinet ministers in the Rouhani government or currently hold other senior positions. The new revelation has send shock waves throughout the Iranian society and political scene, prompting the most senior officials of the regime to take a position.
The participants will urge the German government to categorically condemn the incessant cruel hangings and act with its Western allies to condition any improvement of relations with Iran to an improvement of the human rights situation in Iran, in particular a halt to the executions. They will also demand that those responsible for the 1988 massacre be brought to justice.
The rally will be held in Berlin’s Pariser Platz (Brandenburger Tor) at 5 PM on Saturday September 3.
Background:
More than 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority affiliated to the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), were summarily executed in the summer of 1988 based on a fatwa by Khomeini.
• More than 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in Iran in the summer of 1988.
• The massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by Khomeini.
• The vast majority of the victims were activists of the opposition PMOI (MEK).
• A Death Committee approved all the death sentences.
• Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, a member of the Death Committee, is today Hassan Rouhani’s Justice Minister.
• The perpetrators of the 1988 massacre have never been brought to justice.
• On August 9, 2016, an audio tape was published for the first time of Khomeini’s former heir acknowledging that that massacre took place and had been ordered at the highest levels.