Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988 (Paperback) | Released: 29 Jun 2011

As the world wonders what can be done with the leaders of Iran, this report by a leading UN jurist establishes that many of them - including the Supreme Leader - committed an international crime when they approved and carried out a secret massacre of thousands of political prisoners. This atrocity in 1988, hidden at the time from UN investigators, is now revealed in its full scope and horror, inviting the question of whether the very men capable of his level of lawlessness and barbarity against their own people can be trusted with nuclear power. Geoffrey Robertson QC meticulously unravels the fanatic theocratic thinking that led to the mass murder and identifies the judges, diplomats and politicians (most of them still in positions of power in Iran) who carried out and covered up this "final solution" to the problem of political dissent. He tells how "thousands of prisoners were blindfolded and paraded before the death committee which directed them to a conga line leading straight to the gallows. They were hung from cranes, four at a time, or in groups of six from ropes hanging from the stage of the prison assembly hall. Their bodies were doused with disinfectant, packed in refrigerated trucks and buried by night in mass graves the locations of which were (and still are) withheld from their families". Mr Robertson concludes that these killings were of greater infamy than the Japanese death marches at the end of World War II or the slaughter at Srebrenica, and he urges the UN to set up a Special Court to ensure that their perpetrators are similarly punished.
About the Author: Geoffrey Robertson QC is founder and Head of Doughty Street Chambers, London. He has appeared in many countries as counsel in leading cases in constitutional, human rights, criminal and international law and served as the first President and Appeal Judge in the UN War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone, where he authored landmark decisions on the limits of amnesties, the illegality of recruiting child soldiers and other critical issues in the development of international criminal law. In 2008, he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as one of the "distinguished jurist" members of the UN Internal Justice Council. In the UK, he sits as a Recorder (part-time judge) and is a Master of the Middle Temple and a visiting Professor in Human Rights Law at Queen Mary College. www.geoffreyrobertson.com. About the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation (ABF) ABF is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran. ABF is an independent organisation with no political affiliation. It is named in memory of Dr Abdorrahman Boroumand, an Iranian lawyer and pro-democracy activist who was assassinated in Paris on 18 April 1991. ABF believes that promoting human rights awareness through education and the dissemination of information are necessary prerequisites for the establishment of a stable democracy in Iran. ABF was founded in 2001 by Ladan and Roya Boroumand, the daughters of Dr Boroumand, who were recently awarded the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation Prize to honour their work to promote human rights, freedom of expression and democracy in Iran. ABF is committed to the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other internationally recognised human rights instruments. ABF seeks to ensure that human rights in Iran are promoted and protected without discrimination. Guided by the belief that impunity and unremedied human rights violations are major obstacles to the establishment of a stable democracy, ABF is committed to the rights of all victims of human rights abuse to justice and public recognition. The work of ABF is enabled through the support of a diverse range of funders, including private foundations in Europe and the US, and individual donors. It has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded by US Congress but is governed by an independent Board of Directors. ABF has never received funding from governments. www.iranrights.org