According to reports published on Monday, September 6, figures at various levels of the Iranian regime continue to react to the release of audio files involving conversations between the late dissident cleric Mr. Hossein Ali Montazeri and top government figures regarding the “death committee” in charge of the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
Montazeri who in the 1980s was positioned to succeed the leader of the Islamic Republic, Khomeini, was sidelined and put under house arrest for his challenge to the mass execution of dissidents in the country’s prisons.
Hassan Khomeini, son of Ahmad Khomeini who is referred to in the audio files as one of the chief initiators of the executions has challenged the veracity of the statements attributed to his father and questions the objective of releasing what he refers to as “lies and unfounded statements” on the website of Montazeri.
Meanwhile a day after the posting of the file on the website, Ahmad Montazeri, son of Ayatollah Montazeri was directed by the Ministry of Intelligence to remove the files from the late cleric’s website and his own Telegram page.
Soon after the releasing of the audio file in august 2016, the judiciary also got involved and summoned Ahmad Montazeri for a three hour interrogation session.
He later told Persian BBC that he has been told that since his father, Ayatollah Montazeri was a government figure at the time of the recordings, revealing these audio files is akin to revealing classified government information which is a crime. Ahmad Montazeri is due back for interrogation in the coming week.
However many of the executed prisoners were not in any way connected to this group. In the audio file those involved refer to Mujahedin-e Khalq prisoners as serious threats to the system and speaks of possible threats of conspiracy transpiring from inside the jails by these prisoners.
But Jamaran website administrators know full well that the mass of political prisoners executed summarily in 88 were not all Mujahedin-e Khalq members and their omissions regarding the events has systematically impeded the process of truth finding in this matter.
Now a large spectrum of individuals, human rights activists and relatives of victims and even journalists or activists are probing into the truth of this catastrophe and a file has been opened in the international court at the Hague to hear the evidence of witnesses in this regard.
So far the evidence suggests that the members of “death committee” responsible for perpetrating the executions stretched well into members of the House of Ayatollah Khomeini
The mass executions of 88 may be regarded as the largest systematic massacre in Iran’s contemporary history and some have referred to it as the “Iranian Holocaust”. It is therefore necessary for the House of Khomeini to face the truth and avoid further deepening their culpability with silence and secrecy.

Source: Euroasia Review – Sept.5, 2016