Khomeini’s Grandson Defends Mass Executions

The grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, has defended the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988.

Speaking on May 31 ahead of the anniversary of his grandfather’s death, Ali Khomeini said that the brutality Ayatollah Khomeini and his closest allies used against their opponents was necessary to ensure a strong, forward-looking Islamic Republic. “They assassinated the president, the prime minister and many of the country’s eminent figures,” he said, referring to attacks carried out by the People’s Mojahedin Organization (MKO) in 1981, just two years after the Islamic Revolution. “If Khomeini had shown softness towards their crimes, the country would not have been at peace — even after 30 years.”

Iran executed thousands of political prisoners, including members of the MKO, in the summer of 1988. But Ali Khomeini defended the move, saying the MKO had committed worse crimes than ISIS had. He rejected any show of pity toward the “hypocrites,” a term Iranian officials routinely use in connection with MKO members.

In recent years, there has been growing criticism of the mass executions of 1988. Relatives of the prisoners and critics of the regime say the executions were carried out without due legal process: most of those killed had been tried in secret and handed down sentences after short interrogations. They were serving those sentences at the time of their execution — and the order for their deaths were not part of those sentences.

On May 9, reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh branded the executions as illegal. “Issuing and implementing a new verdict against prisoners who have been tried and convicted and have not committed a new crime is unacceptable,” he wrote. He demanded that the Islamic Republic ask for forgiveness from the families of the prisoners who were executed in 1988.

In his memoirs, the late Ayatollah Montazeri, who at the time of the executions was Khomeini’s heir apparent, wrote that Khomeini issued approval for four senior figures to oversee the executions: Ebrahim Raeesi, the deputy prosecutor who currently controls Iran’s wealthiest religious endowment in Mashhad; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who represented the Intelligence Ministry and is now Minister of Justice; Morteza Eshraghi, Tehran’s prosecutor, who has retired from official duty but now runs a private law practice; and Hossein Ali Nayeri, who is currently the president of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges.

The executions were carried out in retaliation for the MKO’s military operation codenamed Forough (“Blaze”), which was launched in the early summer of 1988 in western Iran, just a couple of months before the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Iranian armed forces quickly crushed the operation.

The exact number of people executed is not known, but it is estimated to be around 3,800. Members of People’s Mojahedin Organization were not the only people to face execution. Members of the Tudeh (Communist) Party, the Marxist organization People's Fadai Guerrillas and other political groups were executed as part of the same vendetta.

Ayatollah Khomeini authorized the executions in a letter stating that those in prison who continued to insist on “hypocrisy” deserved to die.

Defending Their Grandfather’s Legacy

The statement from Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson is a clear challenge to political figures like Mostafa Tajzadeh who have spoken out against the Islamic Republic’s past deeds.

Ali Khomeini also framed the revenge against MKO members within the context of the group’s terrorist activities of the early 1980s. Yet this narrative is flawed, since historical evidence shows the executions were not limited to MKO members — and was not necessarily supported by all members of the government at the time. Instead, it was the snap decision of a limited segment of the regime that enjoyed the support of the supreme leader. According to his memoirs, Ayatollah Montazeri was against the move, and top figures including Ayatollah Khamenei, the current supreme leader, were not informed about it.

In recent years the family of Ayatollah Khomeini has gone to great lengths to portray the founder of the Islamic Republic as a moral and conscientious leader. These efforts usually pick up pace in late May, as the anniversary of his death approaches on June 4. On June 1, Khomeini’s other grandson, Hassan Khomeini, presented his grandfather as standing up against dogmatism and terror, somebody for whom “the people’s vote” was a central tenet.

Ali Khomeini is more of a principalist — following what he sees as the original values of the Islamic Revolution — than Hassan Khomeini. And this has played out in the support he has gained, with prominent principalists tending to favor him over Hassan Khomeini. Some hardliner media have given prominence to the divisions between the two. These differences may well be evident, but when it comes to defending the character of their grandfather, they are united. Whatever the future brings in terms of their different approaches to politics and social outlook, they are steadfast on the past, even when it comes to the executions of thousands of Iranian citizens.

http://en.iranwire.com/features/7271/