“In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially executed 30,000 political prisoners held in jails across Iran. This massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by Khomeini. The Iranian regime has never acknowledged these executions or provided any information as to how many prisoners were killed”, declares the NCRI.

Until now, when on the recording, Khomeini’s former heir-apparent, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Montazeri, addresses a meeting with the “death committee”: Hossein-Ali Nayeri, the regime’s sharia judge; Morteza Eshraqi, the regime’s prosecutor; Ebrahim Raeesi, deputy prosecutor; and Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). 

He can be heard telling the committee members: “The greatest crime committed during the reign of the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed by you. Your (names) will in the future be etched in the annals of history as criminals.” He also added, “Executing these people while there have been no new activities (by the prisoners) means that … the entire judicial system has been at fault.”

Montazeri reveals that the massacre had been planned for a long time.  He says, “(The ministry of) Intelligence wanted to do it (the massacre) and had made investments. And, Ahmad (Khomeini’s son) had been personally saying for three or four years (prior to the massacre) that the MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq) must all be executed, even if they read their newspapers, publications and statements.” He adds, “The MEK are not simply individuals. They represent an ideology and a school of thought. They represent a line of logic. One must respond to the wrong logic by presenting the right logic. One cannot resolve this through killing; killing will only propagate and spread it.”

Montazeri rebukes the then-judiciary minister Moussavi Ardebili’s defense of the massacre on the recording. Apparently, both Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-Speaker of the Majlis (Parliament), and Ali Khamenei, then-President, also defended the massacre.

“…the people are now revolted by the Velayat-e Faqih”,  Montazeri says of the brutality of the massacre.

Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reacted to the publication of the shocking audio recording by saying, “It is imperative to put the clerical regime’s leaders on trial for committing crimes against humanity.”

The NCRI calls out those members of the death committee, still active in Iran’s government.  “Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi is currently the Justice Minister in Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet, and Hossein-Ali Nayeri is the current head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges. Ebrahim Raeesi was the clerical regime’s prosecutor up until several months ago and has recently been appointed by Khamenei as the head of the Astan Qods-e Razavi Foundation, which is one of the most important political and economic powerhouses in the clerical regime. It appropriates public funds in order to financially support some of the regime’s acts of suppression and export of terrorism, including funds spent for the war in Syria.”

Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who pled of moderation and mercy, was subsequently dismissed as the heir by then-supreme leader Khomeini. 

“Montazeri’s remarks provide indisputable evidence for putting those responsible for the massacre of 1988, the clerical regime’s leaders, on trial for committing crimes against humanity. The Iranian Resistance calls the international community’s attention, specifically that of the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, to the imperative of referring this case to a responsible international tribunal.”, says the NCRI, and adds, “The Iranian Resistance stresses that remaining indifferent in the face of the greatest massacre of political prisoners since World War Two, and in view of clear evidence and documents, would be tantamount to a blatant violation of recognized values of human rights, peace and democracy, upon which the United Nations has been built.”