Residents of Iran city claim new Interior Minister ordered massacre

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 19 – In a letter to the United Nations human rights office in Geneva, a copy of which was sent to Iran Focus, residents in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbass accused the country’s new Minister of the Interior-designate of ordering the summary execution of dozens of young people in the city to put down an anti-government riot in 1981 and demanded an international inquiry into the incident.

The letter named 48 of the victims of executions.

The residents allege that Hojjatol-Islam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi personally issued death sentences for dozens of dissidents, including several minors, when he was sent to Bandar Abbass in the early 1980s as the country’s Military Revolutionary Prosecutor to deal with growing unrest and anti-government protests in the port city. Bandar Abbas is strategically located on the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and was the main Iranian port after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in September 1980.

Bandar Abbas became a hotbed of opposition activities in 1980. The government’s decision to sack more than 600 dissident teachers in Bandar Abbass and neighbouring towns and cities inflamed the simmering tensions and led to public protests. The authorities sent in units of Revolutionary Guards to stamp out the protests and closed all schools and offices.As unrest continued, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered Pour-Mohammadi, the feared Military Revolutionary Prosecutor, to restore order in the city. Under his supervision, Revolutionary Guards rounded up the dissidents throughout the province and shot them after summary trials.

Pour-Mohammadi, now 46 years old, has been in charge of the Special Department for Security and Intelligence in the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since 1997. Prior to that, for 13 years he was Deputy Minister of Intelligence and Security.

The names of some of the victims of executions allegedly ordered by Pour-Mohammadi in Bandar-Abbas follows:

1. Mohammad Zazmat-Pisheh, 18-year-old student

2. Mehdi Eezdeshnas, 16-year-old student

3. Kamyar Esmaeil-Zadeh, 18-year-old student

4. Karim Abdollah-Pour, 23-year-old, docker

5. Mahsheed Motazed Keyvan, housewife, executed in prison several months after giving birth to a boy in prison

6. Mohammad Cheshm-Bara, docker

7. Ali-Reza Ghasemian, 17-year-old student

8. Mohammad Sarafraz, Navy officer, was married and had two children

9. Mohammad Azimi, 18-year-old student

10. Hamid Motaghedi, 18-year-old student

11. Karim Torabi, 20 years old

12. Ne’mat Bashkhour, 23-year-old teacher, was hanged from a lamp post in downtown Bandar-Abbas and his body was not taken down for two days

13. Mohammad Soleimani, 18-year-old student

14. Mohammad-Hossein Sahafi, teacher

15. Sharifian, student

16. Yaghoub Zadeh17. Nader Roosta,

17-year-old student

18. Mahmoud Foolad-Khani, 19-year-old student

19. Mohammad Ramazan-Pour, 22-year-old graduate

20. Mohammad Amin-Torabi

21. Mohammad Moeeni, student

22. Hassan Bashiri

23. Mahmoud Khodadadzadeh

24. Parviz Shangi-Pour, student

25. Fatollah Farbod, 22-year-old graduate

26. Aref Bolouki, student

27. Hossein Rakani, student

28. Ahmad Eslami

29. Nasser Moradi

30. Mansour Ahmad-Shahi

31. Nasroolah Ahmad-Shahi

32. Raj Ahmad-Shahi

33. Moussa Pishdad

34. Jalali

35. Hossein Rowhani, 17-year-old student

36. Ahmad Cheshm-Barah

37. Behrooz Youssefi

38. Hamid Makrani

39. Pourtaragh

40. Eskandari

41. Sadeghi

42. Hassan Ravan

43. Aziz Pour-Ahmadi

44. Mohammad Firouzi, student

45. Mahmoud Youssefi

46. Qanbar Pishdast

47. Makkari

48. Yadollah Salari