According to BBC Persian, a newly revealed audio recording captures a second conversation between Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri—formerly the Islamic Republic’s Deputy Leader—and three officials known as the “Death Committee,” who oversaw the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners. Recorded three months before Montazeri’s dismissal, it features his severe condemnation of these executions and his assertion that Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) has become “repulsive” to the public.
During August and September 1988, on the orders of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, thousands of political detainees were secretly executed and buried in mass graves. The first wave in early August targeted supporters of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO); the second wave, beginning in early September, targeted leftist and communist prisoners. Montazeri had previously met with the Death Committee on August 15, 1988, before the leftist executions began, though MKO-affiliated prisoners were already being put to death.
The recording now in question reportedly came from a December 30, 1988 (9 Dey 1367) meeting at Montazeri’s residence in Qom, which included Hossein-Ali Nayeri (Sharia judge), Morteza Eshraqi (Tehran prosecutor), and Ebrahim Raeesi (deputy prosecutor). The survivors and families of Iran’s political prisoners during the 1980s refer to them as the “Death Committee.” Their discussion highlights the roles and awareness of top officials during the 1988 executions, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (then President), Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Parliament Speaker), Ahmad Khomeini (Manager of the Supreme Leader’s office), and Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili (Chief of the Supreme Judicial Council).
In this audio recording, Montazeri recounts Ali Khamenei saying he had “fought with Hossein-Ali Nayeri” over the killings. Montazeri also references a “separate decree” for leftists—allegedly prompted by Nayeri—on the grounds that “if religious prisoners were executed, then so must the communists.” Montazeri later expressed uncertainty in his memoirs about Khamenei’s exact awareness of the executions of MKO members in August of that year, wondering “whether Ayatollah Khamenei really did not know or was simply telling me so.”
Ayatollah Khomeini had issued an earlier decree in August 1988, shortly after the MKO’s “Forogh Javidan” operation, urging officials to show no mercy to those labeled “enemies of God.” He appointed Nayeri, Eshraqi, and a Ministry of Intelligence representative to lead the process. Montazeri, serving as Deputy Leader, met with the Tehran committee on August 15 and requested a pause during Muharram. Yet after Ashura (early September), the executions shifted focus to Marxist prisoners.
Survivors report that the Death Committee often questioned inmates about their faith—including whether they prayed or renounced their affiliations—and used “apostasy” as grounds for execution. Three months after Montazeri’s second meeting, he was ousted on March 26, 1989 (6 Farvardin 1368), following the leak of his protest letter condemning the killings. In June 1989, Ali Khamenei became Supreme Leader and later defended Khomeini’s orders.
Montazeri laments in the audio that no official has accepted responsibility: “They’ve done something for which none of them dares say, ‘I did it.’ They all point to Imam Khomeini’s written order. Hashemi Rafsanjani denies it. The whole world knows about this—so what are we even saying?” He asserts that some inmates who had received amnesty were still executed. At the time, Rafsanjani publicly claimed “fewer than a thousand” had been executed, a figure disputed by sources like the United Nations Special Rapporteur, who put the total above one thousand. Montazeri personally accused the Death Committee of having “killed three thousand people,” later suggesting over 3,800 were executed.
Toward the end of the recording, Montazeri warns: “For the public, the concept of Velayat-e Faqih has truly become repulsive. People are fed up.” He recounts a discussion with Ahmad Khomeini—Ayatollah Khomeini’s son—and the Ministry of Intelligence, claiming they colluded to secure approval for mass executions. Montazeri insists they had sought a pretext to eliminate political opposition for years. Despite repeated protests and letters to Ayatollah Khomeini, Montazeri’s opposition cost him his position as Deputy Leader. Ahmad Khomeini, who signed the decree removing Montazeri, wrote that Ayatollah Khomeini had taken “religious responsibility” for the executions.
Decades later, the Iranian government has not returned the bodies of the executed prisoners to their families, and the exact number of victims remains unknown. This newly disclosed audio, however, underscores Montazeri’s unwavering resistance to the 1988 mass executions—an event that continues to cast a long shadow over Iran’s political and judicial history.