Primo Levi, a Holocaust survivor of Italian origin who led a distinguished life, was at the Auschwitz concentration camp hospital one day due to high fever caused by an infectious disease. He later wrote in his memoirs that when confronted with Soviet soldiers: "They neither greeted nor smiled; they seemed to be tormented by the guilt of why this crime had to happen."
The trial of one of the perpetrators of another heinous crime, the massacre of 30,000 Iranian political prisoners in 1988, is currently taking place in a Swedish court. What happened in 1988 was a ruthless, bloody, and unconceivable massacre of political prisoners. It was a horrible crime against humanity, a genocide according to international human rights law experts. The fundamentalist theocracy led the execution of thousands of political prisoners in its custody, violating all international laws and norms. Hearing about the strength and courage of those who sacrificed their lives for freedom should invoke immeasurable admiration.
In an ominous hand-written fatwa (religious decree), the regime's former Supreme Leader Khomeini reiterated in 1988 that any prisoner who leans towards "hypocrisy," defined as opposition to the ruling dictatorship, should be executed immediately. According to Amnesty International, the primary targets of this heinous crime against humanity were thousands of Muslim youths, members of the main opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), who had angered the fundamentalist mullahs by offering a moderate, democratic and tolerant interpretation of Islam. Khomeini called them "hypocrites" and thought that their annihilation is essential for the preservation of his regime.
The Iranian oppositional group believes that the innate capacity and freedom to make choices lies at the heart of what it is to be a human being. On this philosophical basis, they advocate for political, social and religious freedoms, in addition to complete gender equality in all socio-political and economic aspects.
In comparison, the mullahs' regime has imposed forced veiling on all women and have deprived them of full participation in public and political life. Their constitution considers women to be second-class citizens and worth half of men. Misogyny is embedded in the regime's civil law, with men, for example, having the exclusive right to divorce.
But when it comes to brutal torture and suppression, women and men are equal in the eyes of medieval torturers. The theocracy's brutality in 1988 has been unparalleled in many ways. During the massacre, a prisoner with epilepsy fainted after hearing about his execution order. But his condition did not prevent the regime from hanging him. He was carried by another political prisoner to a prison hall named the Death Corridor, where the prisoners waited for their turn to be delivered to the executioners.
Another prisoner, who had previously tried to commit suicide to free himself from grueling torture, was taken to the so-called Death Commission. In less than a minute, he was sentenced to death and taken on a stretcher to the execution hall.
These historical testimonies were given to the Swedish court, which is currently prosecuting one of the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre in Sweden.
Following this gruesome crimes, the mullahs' propaganda machine employed many tactics to hide its misdeeds and to demonize the main victims, the oppositional group. In order to avoid the public's wrath and to deprive the opposition of popular sympathy, the mullahs launched a well-funded demonization campaign against the oppositional group. The regime has also done its utmost to erase all traces of the 1988 massacre, by destroying the many mass graves that held the victims.
Tehran is adept at hiding its heinous crimes, primarily because it has enjoyed international impunity for so long. It tried to hide or otherwise mislead public opinion about the rape, torture, and murder of Iranian-Canadian Journalist Zahra Kazemi in July 2003. And more recently, it has shown consistent unwillingness to participate in a thorough investigation into the shooting down of a Ukrainian plane and the deaths of 176 passengers in January 2020. Many of the victims were Canadian citizens.
During the June 2021 sham presidential elections, Khamenei paved the way for the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, known as "the butcher of 1988." The global human rights organization Amnesty International correctly expressed the demand for the prosecution of Ebrahim Raisi for his key role in the 1988 massacre. Many other human rights experts, including UN rapporteurs, as well as scores of Western legislators have joined that call. Will the international community finally feel as guilty as the Allied soldiers felt in the 1940s when they came across the Nazis' crimes?
Or will it continue to disregard the 1988 massacre while appeasing the fascists of today who are ruling Iran, apparently assured that they will continue to enjoy international impunity? Time will tell.