When the website of late Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri posted an audio recording of his objections to the execution of thousands of people, mostly members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) in the late 1980s, it revealed little new information beyond what had been printed in Montazeri’s autobiography. One thing the recording does confirm, however, is the identities of the individuals involved in carrying out the executions, some of whom hold important positions in the Islamic Republic today.
No one has more vociferously defended their actions from that time than Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was the Intelligence Ministry’s representative at Evin Prison when the executions took place. Pourmohammadi and three other individuals were in charge of the committee that oversaw the executions. Using the religiously charged term “hypocrites” to refer to MEK members, Pourmohammadi told reporters Aug. 28, “You cannot show mercy to the hypocrites, because if they can bloody and soil you, they will.” He added, “We take pride in executing the orders with respect to the hypocrites.”
The name of Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammad Reyshahri, who headed the Intelligence Ministry during the executions, is not heard in the audio recording. Nonetheless, Reyshahri condemned the release of the audio file, charging that the people behind it were trying to whitewash the image of the MEK at a time when the MEK is aligning with Iran’s regional rival, Saudi Arabia. He accused the people formerly in Montazeri’s inner circle of either having a relationship with the MEK or having been penetrated by them.
Montazeri’s son Ahmad, who was behind making the audio file public, has not provided a clear explanation for his action, only saying that he wanted to set the record straight for those who seek to distort his father’s image. Ahmad Montazeri, a cleric, has twice been interrogated by the Special Court for the Clergy about the release of the tape. According to him, the interrogators accused him of “divulging state secrets” and helping the “alliance of Saudi Arabia and the MEK.”
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