A group of world-leading experts on human rights and international law, including current and former UN officials, have called for actions that would help bring justice to those who suffered in Iran’s mass killing of political prisoners 35 years ago.
In an open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, 285 distinguished individuals and 28 organizations have endorsed a “landmark report” by Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, which accuses the Islamic Republic of “ongoing crimes against humanity.”
“The Special Rapporteur’s report opens a pathway to justice and an end to impunity in Iran,” the open letter published Friday reads. “In line with his recommendations, we urge Your Excellency to use your good offices and call on the Human Rights Council to establish an international accountability mechanism to take actionable measures aimed at ending impunity for Iran’s atrocity crimes, chief among them the 1988 massacre.”
In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were summarily and extrajudicially executed on the orders of Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Rouhollah Khomeini. The precise number of those killed is unknown but estimated to be between 3,000 and 5,000, based on extensive research by human rights groups.
“The willful executioners implemented Khomeini’s fatwa in full knowledge that they were committing international crimes by systematically and deliberately murdering political prisoners all across the country in a coordinated manner,” Rehman wrote in his latest report.
Welcoming Rehman's report, the signatories of the letter have commended the former special rapporteur for challenging the “culture of impunity in Iran” by affirming that the 1988 massacre constitutes “ongoing crimes against humanity.”
Signatories of the open letter to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights include the Presidents of the International Bar Association (IBA), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), and the Secretary General of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
“In light of the Special Rapporteur’s landmark report, we also encourage the co-sponsors of the Canadian-led annual UN Third Committee resolution on Iran to include a specific reference to the 1988 massacre in this year’s resolution to meaningfully counter the ongoing culture of impunity in Iran,” they write in their letter.
Iran has never acknowledged that such crimes were committed and have even prosecuted those seeking justice. No official of any rank has ever been investigated, let alone tried, in relation to the 1988 massacre in Iran.
The only person to have ever stood trial for the killings is Hamid Nouri, a former prison official arrested in Sweden. In 2022, a court in Stockholm sentenced Nouri to life in prison for his role in the 1988 mass executions in Iran. The court found him guilty of “grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder.”
Nouri's conviction was deemed a landmark victory for those Iranians who had sought truth and justice for more than three decades. However, in June 2024, the Swedish government extradited Nouri to Iran in exchange for the release of two of its citizens that were prisoned in Iran.
Sarraf’s nomination is particularly significant given the recent history of Iran’s universities as hotbeds of political dissent. The Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, reignited a wave of student activism that shook the foundations of the Islamic Republic.
Protests erupted across more than 130 universities, with students and professors standing in solidarity against the government. These acts of defiance were met with crackdowns, including arrests, judicial rulings, and the mass dismissal of dissenting faculty members.
Given this backdrop, the choice of Sarraf—a figure with years of clerical training and deep ties to Iran’s conservative establishment and a history of involvement in the system’s ideological purification of universities—sends a clear message: the Islamic Republic is doubling down on its efforts to stifle academic freedom and silence opposition.
Simayi Sarraf’s background is a testament to his alignment with the system’s hardline ideology. Born in Mashhad, he was groomed from a young age to follow in the footsteps of the clerical rulers.
His father’s close ties to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his own military involvement in the Iran-Iraq war set the stage for his rise within the government. After two decades of seminary education, Sarraf transitioned into the academic sphere, where he pursued studies in Islamic jurisprudence and law. His work, steeped in conservative Shia thought, has produced over 50 publications advocating for the integration of Islamic principles into Iran’s legal system.
His tenure in various governmental roles, including his time as Director General of the Legal Office of the Ministry of Science and as Deputy for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, has been marked by his efforts to align the country’s academic institutions with the system’s ideology.
During Rouhani’s administration, he played a key role in the purge of universities, targeting faculty members who dared to challenge the status quo.
The appointment of such a figure to the ministry of science is an indication that the system intends to continue its assault on academic freedom. The ministry, under Simayi Sarraf’s leadership, is likely to intensify efforts to Islamize universities further, pushing out any remaining voices of dissent and reinforcing the control over Iran’s educational institutions.
The revelation comes after the early exit of Mohammad Javad Zarif, a key figure in Pezeshkian’s circle, an event that continues to make waves. Scrutiny has intensified over the cabinet nominees in which candidates, some holdovers from Ebrahim Raisi’s administration and others relatively obscure figures, seem unlikely to bring the meaningful change that Iran’s sectors, particularly its universities.
Instead, the list of nominees reflects a continuation of the status quo rather than the progressive change that many had anticipated.
It is particularly alarming in light of the recent purges that began under President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration. Following the widespread protests that erupted after Mahsa Amini’s death, the government launched an aggressive campaign to root out opposition within universities.
Observers believe that the appointment of Simayi Sarraf signals a renewed commitment to silencing dissent and erasing any remnants of academic freedom in Iran and that its academic purges are far from over.