agreement with mullahs means more executions

   agreement with  mullahs means more executions

The following is an article written by Karim Moradi, an Iranian human rights activist and member of the Society of Iranian Political Prisoners. His article was published in The Hill.
I am often asked by my American friends what I think about the Iran deal. As someone who spent seven years of his life imprisoned in Iran, it is difficult for me to give a simple answer. I have spent the past few weeks reflecting not on the nuclear deal with Iran, but on the summer of 1988, when Iran systematically massacred 30,000 political prisoners in a matter of weeks. 
I was born in 1958 in the beautiful city of Shiraz in southwestern Iran. I was a student activist against the Shah’s dictatorship but after the 1979 uprising, I felt that my values stood in sharp contrast to the clerics, who had usurped the popular revolution. I felt closer to the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, (PMOI/MEK) an opposition organization that espoused a democratic interpretation of Islam and stood for a secular and democratic republic. 
I was arrested by the clerical regime for selling opposition newspapers in January 1982. I was 23 years old when after a sham trial I was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison. I was then tortured and later sentenced to death by a judge named Ramazani. 
While in prison, I was whipped with cables on my feet and back, and was routinely beaten. My cellmates, all political prisoners, were hung from the ceiling, sometimes for hours, or had parts of their bodies gradually burnt. I also heard about women, including two sisters of a family friend, who were raped before they were executed. 
Although our days were filled with isolation and torture, we would often find time at night to whisper poems and revolutionary songs together, both to stimulate our spirits and for momentary escape. Through these small acts of defiance, we were able to strengthen our resistance and maintain high spirits in what was living hell.  
I was released through a rare stroke of luck, two months before what would be the largest massacre of political prisoners in the history of Iran. My father was able to use a judicial contact in Supreme Judicial Council to overturn my death sentence and secure my release on medical grounds.  
The order for the massacre came from Khomeini directly in the form of a fatwa (religious decree), calling for the execution of all who remained steadfast in their support for the MEK. Prisoners were asked a simple question: do you still support the MEK? Those who answered yes were executed, even if their original sentence had ended. Many of my closest friends were executed. 
The vast majority of the victims were MEK members and supporters. They were hung in groups, sometimes 10 to 15 at a time, and later buried in mass graves. The scale of the massacre remains unknown, as no formal investigation has taken place, but opposition groups estimate as many as 30,000 were killed that summer.  read more