Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a board member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader, in a sermon on 21 July 2017 cried out against calls for justice over the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran. Khatami went as far as saying medals of honour should be awarded to those who, under the orders of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, executed thousands of prisoners in the summer of 1988.
Khatami said: “Then we see some people who on their websites switch the place of martyrs and murderers. Confronting them (imprisoned dissidents) and wiping out the Monafeqin (People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran) was one of the Imam’s most righteous and valuable actions, and all of the persons who complied with his edict should be awarded a Medal of Honour. … However, those who on their websites have switched the place of martyrs and murderers should repent and beg for forgiveness”.
A fatwa by Khomeini in the summer of 1988 called for the extermination of all supporters of the PMOI (or MEK) in prisons across Iran. More than 30,000 political prisoners, the vast majority PMOI members, were executed.