There is growing alarm in the international community that the Iranian regime, in blind panic at the looming overthrow of its tyrannical dictatorship, is preparing to massacre political prisoners. Since the election of the so-called ‘moderate’ President Masoud Pezeshkian one year ago, executions have surged, with over 1,300 carried out, some 650 in 2025 alone. Now, in a frightening escalation, Fars News – a state-run agency linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)- has published an editorial praising the execution of over 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 in an article entitled ‘Why the 1988 Executions Should Be Repeated’. The article stated that dissident detainees pose a threat to national security and should therefore be eliminated.
The 1988 massacre saw the summary execution of an estimated 30,000 political prisoners across Iran, most of whom were supporters or members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The mass killings were based on a fatwa issued by the then Supreme Leader, the psychotic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who ordered the hanging of all detainees who, following sham 3-minute ‘trials’, heroically professed their ongoing support for the PMOI/MEK. He even ordered the re-arrest and execution of prisoners who had served their sentences and been released. Among the thousands hanged were many women, some of whom were pregnant when they were condemned.
Khomeini appointed ‘Death Committees’ to conduct the mock trials in 1988. Many of the executioners who served in these Death Committees and sentenced thousands to execution, went on to serve in senior positions within the theocratic regime. The former president, Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2024, was known as ‘The Butcher of Tehran’ for his ruthless role as an executioner. Incredibly, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a member of one of the ‘Death Committees’, was, until mid-2017, former President Hassan Rouhani’s Justice Minister! When his part in the murders became known publicly, it caused such outrage and revulsion that he was replaced by Alireza Avaie, who was also a prominent ‘Death Committee’ executioner during the 1988 massacre, in his role as Chief Prosecutor in the city of Dezful.
Far from attempting to absolve himself from those crimes, Pourmohammadi has recently resurfaced, making a series of statements that further expose the deep-seated brutality and current panic within Iran’s ruling theocratic regime. He has specifically identified the PMOI/MEK as the key target for the regime’s repressive forces, saying: “The most important group that has always made noise in the country and is still supported by Iran’s enemies to this day is(sic) these same Mojahedin.” In a chilling attempt to justify the 1988 massacre and encourage its repetition, he went on to describe the terrifying atmosphere deliberately cultivated by the regime during the 1980s, admitting, “Many individuals were severely influenced by the general atmosphere… They would say: Sir, execute like so-and-so, execute! … They would say everyone must be executed.”
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A report in July 2024 from the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran described the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances in the 1988 massacre as ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide. Pourmohammadi and others should realize that their day of reckoning is fast approaching. Burgeoning Resistance Units of the PMOI/MEK are now courageously firebombing IRGC and Basij militia compounds across Iran. Graffiti and banners supporting the main democratic opposition movement – the National Council of Resistance of Iran - and its fearless leader, Mrs Maryam Rajavi, appear daily on walls, bridges, and billboards. Cyberattacks disrupt state TV and radio broadcasts, with messages of support for Mrs Rajavi and the PMOI/MEK.
Fearing another mass, nationwide uprising like the one in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, the mullahs now appear to be preparing further atrocities. The execution of political prisoners accused of moharebeh – or waging war against God – is now being cranked up. On 12 July 2025, three opposition activists - Farshad Etemadi-Far, Masoud Jamei, and Alireza Mardasi - were sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court after two years of torture, accused solely of support for the opposition PMOI (MEK). In July 2025, the mullahs’ Supreme Court rejected a fourth request for judicial review for political prisoners Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, both PMOI/MEK supporters, leaving them at imminent risk of death row.
There are currently dozens of political prisoners on death row on similar charges. The global community must urgently confront the escalating wave of political executions and entrenched impunity in Iran. The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Dr Mai Sato, her colleagues in the Human Rights Council Special Procedures, and the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI) must immediately condemn the executions. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - Volker Türk– must speak out in unequivocal opposition to the Iranian regime’s systematic human rights violations. There is no room for the international silence that prevailed during the heinous 1988 massacre. The civilized world cannot allow such crimes against humanity to be repeated. The international community failed to act in 1988. It must not fail again. The responsibility to prevent another massacre of political prisoners from being repeated rests with the UN and its member states.
Following the series of critical setbacks that have impacted the mullahs’ regime in the past year, with the virtual collapse of their so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’, including Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is an almost unprecedented opportunity for regime change in Iran. The people of Iran reject the need for military intervention or boots on the ground. They reject the decades-old Western policy of appeasement, which has failed time and again. The Iranian people cite the third option, the overthrow of the regime by the people themselves and their Resistance, and call on the international community to provide moral support.
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