• The basis for my death penalty is that I have disclosed the savage actions of Intelligence Ministry and have refused to cooperate by giving information or to give TV interview against PMOI
• Let me go to the gallows for supporting the PMOI. We live up to our patriotic and ideological responsibilities
The steadfast prisoner Mr. Gholamreza Khosravi was hanged in Gohardasht Prison on Sunday, June 1 (today), after suffering 12 years of torture and imprisonment in the hands of the clerical regime’s henchmen. During the past years, henchmen imposed the most severe tortures and the highest pressures on Gholamreza to break him and force him to give up his support for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), but he defeated his henchmen refusing to give in until the last hours that he was in solitary confinement with his hands and feet in chains.
On 12 September 2013, in an interview secretly smuggled out of the prison, he said that he had been condemned to death because of refusing to cooperate with the intelligence ministry and rejecting to give any TV interview against the PMOI, as well as for revealing the barbaric actions of the mullahs’ intelligence. He said in his interview:
“Since I was arrested again from 24 February 2008 until 16 July 2011, I spent 40 months in solitary confinement in different detention centers without any humanitarian facilities with just twice a year prison visits and no right to make phone calls… the atrocious Alawi [head henchman Reza Seraj with pseudonym Alawi, the head interrogator of PMOI] had told my brother that it was he who changed my sentence from three years in prison to the death penalty. The context of the verdict demonstrates the spite and hatred of the regime toward us since the 1980s because they had included the issues relating to the 1980s in my sentence. The other reason was my revelations in Rafsanjan’s unjust court against the Intelligence Ministry’s barbaric and anti-human acts and my refusal to cooperate to give information on the PMOI or to have a TV interview against the PMOI…
“I had some activities with Simaye Azadi [Iran National Television (INTV)] in disclosing the criminal, warmongering and anti-patriotic nature of the regime and the spread of poverty, corruption and destruction by them. I sent them information in this regard and had given monetary contribution to this TV network.”
Speaking on his background Gholamreza had said: “Since 1979, as the anti-monarchic revolution gathered speed, I got acquainted with the PMOI. After the victory of the revolution, this acquaintance became a steady relation and I was active in the student section of the organization. I was finally arrested in August of 1981 for this reason. I was active in the cities of Abadan, Nourabad Mamasani and Kazeroun. In August 1981, while I was sixteen, I was arrested for my active support for the PMOI. I spent four years in the revolutionary guards’ prison in Kazeroun and another year in exile in the Adelabad Prison of Shiraz. This period was full of torment, torture and much hardship. I was released in August 1986. After I was released from prison, although I passed the entrance test to university, they deprived me from continuing my studies and preconditioned my admission to university to accepting intelligence cooperation with the Intelligence Ministry which I never accepted.”
Speaking on his political position he had stated: “I have no fear or horror in declaring my support for the PMOI. Let me be sent to the gallows for this support and the anti-human spite and hatred of this regime for this organization and its supporters. Let me be the flag of honor and liberation for the heroic people of Iran and let our martyrdom result in defaming this anti-human regime and cause its quicker downfall.”
Speaking on the condition of the unjust court that had tried him he stipulated: “This bloodthirsty regime refused to allow me to even speak for one minute with my lawyers before the trial. The intelligence and the security elements and the staff of the court branch office were keen on preventing me from speaking or establishing any contact with my lawyers. There was a lawyer [in the trial], but there was no jury. Moreover, the verdicts are predetermined and are handed down to the judges.”
Commenting on Rouhani’s promises to review cases and release political prisoners, Gholamreza said: “In my view, if Hassan Rouhani had made any such promises it is only a deceitful remark for the propaganda purposes. It is only aimed to deceive people in Iran and in the world to reduce pressure by public opinion inside and outside the country in order to prevent further international condemnations and subsequent sanctions. From the regime’s point of view, prisoners of conscience and political prisoners are terms used for people affiliated to factions within the regime and not others. They are the same criminals from decades ago who have repeatedly declared in interrogations and trials that they regretted change of situation, otherwise they would not have spared a minute to kill us. If there is any change it is only due to pressures and the faltering state of the regime and aimed to save the regime. ”
The other point that I want to make is that … I am fully ready to die for people and the liberation ideals of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. I consider my death sentence as the God’s will and whatever happens is for the good and I accept it wholeheartedly and I am honored by it. I do not at all look for or hope for what Hassan Rouhani may do or what kind of slogans he may use. We are doing our nationalistic and patriotic duties for our ideals and we are absolutely ready to be sacrificed and pay the price on every level. Who the hell is Rouhani? Our view of the world extends far beyond these things. I call on everyone to get ready and prepare for the overthrow of the criminal and anti-human regime and make every effort to get rid of this regime with all its factions and then establish a popular rule, freedom, democracy, equality and justice for everyone in the country.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 1, 2014