Regarding a member of the Death Commission, the enforcers of Khomeini’s decree for that genocide, Ebrahim Raisi, who is currently a candidate for the Presidential Election, the media writes, “If Raisi played a role in the execution of the Mujahedins, this issue is actually an advantage for him.”

Iran’s current regime tried to stop the release of Khomeini’s decree, according to an article published by the National Council of Resistance of Iran on Saturday, April 22, “because it was a direct order to commit genocide and mass destruction for the sake of belief.” Further, they wrote,  “Any legal authority undoubtedly would consider this decree as a crime against the humanity.”

State-run Afkar News wrote, “Khomeini issued a decree to protect the country and the regime and to topple the PMOI. This order was actually a most significant and decisive one,” as they released a document on April 18th, entitled “The decisive agenda of Khomeini to confront and execute the Mujahedins”. 

Afkar News reported that i in this decree, Khomein stressed that all imprisoned Mujahedins who remained true to their beliefs should be executed. They quote Khomeini, “Those who insist on their stances and beliefs are the enemies and they shall be sentenced to death. The sentence is issued in Tehran by the majority votes of the Messrs. Nayeri (the legitimate Judge), Eshraghi (the Prosecutor of Tehran), and the Ministry of Intelligence. Although caution is consensus, the majority votes of the Judge, the Prosecutor of the Revolution and the Ministry of Intelligence are mandatory in the central prisons of the country and having mercy on the enemies is naivety. The firmness of Islam against the enemies of God is undoubtedly one of the principles of the Islamic system. I hope you satisfy Allah Almighty with your hatred and anger against the enemies of Islam. Those who issue sentence shall not doubt and they have to be hard on the infidels. Any doubt in the Islamic judicial cases means trampling the blood of the martyrs.”

Referring to the partnership of rivals, including Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha and Seyed Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardabili, Afkar writes, “After the decree was issued, a three-member delegation consisting of the representatives of the Prosecuting General, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the legitimate Judge were assigned to investigate the case and carry out the sentence. The legitimate Judge, Hossein Ali Nayeri; the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence, Mostafa Pourmohammadi; the deputy of Tehran Prosecutor, Ebrahim Raisi; and the Judge of Evin Prison, Morteza Eshragh; are those responsible for investigating the case of the Mujahedins in the prison. Moreover, the Chief of the Supreme Court, Mousavi Ardabili, and the Attorney-General of Iran, Mousavi Khou’iniha, also participated in making the decisions.”

Afkar News acknowledged the success of the litigation movement, saying, “As some judicial and intelligence figures of the 1990s entered the political and social arenas, the news about the mass executions of 1988 has hit the headlines once again,” and added, “As the current Custodian and Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi, Ebrahim Raisi sought nomination in the Presidential Election of 2017, while many attempted to expose his scandal in the mass execution of 1988. Meanwhile, some people even try to demonize Raisi’s case in the country by condemning the executions of 1988 and proclaiming the incident as a crime against the humanity. However, some reformists and supporters of the current government have forgotten that the decision-makers of those years are currently the spiritual fathers of the reformist faction. Due to a change of ethics and values, some people are desperate to condemn or reject the effective measures imposed by the regime in the first decade of the Islamic Revolution. Although these people were actually involved in the measures, they have become regretful of their past due to the time shift.”

The NCRI notes that “the state-run media released Khomeini’s order desperately and they have confessed to the crisis of governance and the social hatred of the regime. However, Khamenei has a fear of showing and reading the document on the state-run TV channels, since Khomeini’s order explicitly represents the crimes against the humanity.”  

Maryam Rajavi, President-Elect of the NCRI, stressed that “the promotion of justice and the commemoration of martyrs will definitely make the mercenaries respond and they need to be tried for the crimes they committed.”