The Most TERRIFYING EXECUTION METHODS Of The Ayatollah KHOMEINI Regime | REAL IMAGES

Between 1979 and the end of the 80s, thousands of people died under sentences issued by revolutionary courts in Iran. Only in 1981, more than 2,000 opponents were executed. And in 1988, between 4,000 and 5,000 political prisoners died inside Iranian prisons in a few weeks. Firing squads, public hangings, and collective executions became part of the new system of power established under the Ayatollah Rouhola Kmeni.

With the passing of the years, these methods not only remained, but they changed form and setting, passing from rapid executions after the revolution to public hangings and secret operations inside prisons. But how did this system of executions come to consolidate itself inside revolutionary Iran? Collapse of the Iranian Empire.

 The revolution opens way to religious courts. The 16th of January of 1979 began a turn that changed the course of the Iranian state. That day, Muhammad Raza Palavi left the country. The monarch left Thran accompanied by the Empress Faradiba and by a small group of close collaborators. During years he had governed with a centralized system that depended on the army, on the state bureaucracy, and on the apparatus of security.

 When his plane took off, those structures started to show signs of fracture. What until then had functioned as a solid apparatus started to lose cohesion while the uncertainty spread through the country. In the weeks that followed, the imperial government fell apart piece by piece. Military officers discussed contradictory orders while the chain of command weakened.

 Some commanders tried to maintain the discipline inside the armed forces, but many units no longer reacted with the same obedience. In various barracks began discussions between young soldiers and superior officers. At the same time, ministers and high-ranking officials started to leave their posts. Some resigned publicly, others simply stopped appearing in their offices.

 While the authority of the palace weakened, the cities filled with demonstrations. Large crowds went out to the streets of Thran, Tabris, K, and other important cities. The marches brought together students, bizarre merchants, clerics, workers, and urban sectors that had been participating for months in protests against the government.

 In many areas, the businesses remained closed because of prolonged strikes. The factories stopped their production and the public employees stopped working for entire days. That climate paralyzed the economy and reinforced the sensation that the imperial system was losing control. The demonstrations did not appear as isolated events.

 Each week, they grew in size and organization. The participants walked through main avenues carrying portraits of religious figures and banners with slogans against the regime. In entire neighborhoods, the residents organized nightly meetings where news recorded speeches and rumors that circulated through the city were discussed.

 Many of those recordings came from the outside, especially of messages attributed to a cleric who had been living outside the country for years. That cleric was Ruholak Kmeni. He had spent almost 15 years in exile after facing the government of the sha in the decade of 1960. During that time he had moved between Iraq and France from where he disseminated speeches and declarations that circulated clandestinely inside Iran.

 At the end of January of 1979, his return began to be discussed openly in all the country. Crowds waited for news about the exact date in which he would land. The one of February of 1979, the plane that transported Kmeni arrived at the Meabad airport of Thran. His arrival caused an enormous mobilization. Millions of people concentrated in streets and highways to witness the moment in which the religious man returned to the country.

 The caravan that moved him from the airport advanced slowly between a compact crowd that occupied entire avenues. That day marked the start of a new phase of the revolutionary process. After his arrival, Kmeni began to meet with different political and religious groups. He settled initially in the Rafa School of Thran, which functioned as a coordination center for revolutionary leaders.

 From there, he issued public declarations and received delegations that represented very diverse sectors of society. In parallel, the leaders of the old government tried to find a way to conserve some administrative structure. But the situation changed with speed. During the following days, the tension inside the armed forces became more visible.

 Some units started to show sympathy for the demonstrators. Young soldiers talked with civilians in the streets, and in certain neighborhoods, armed groups emerged from the population started to patrol urban areas. In various cities appeared clashes between units loyal to the old government and sectors that supported the revolution. That situation accelerated the disintegration of the state apparatus that had sustained the imperial regime.

At the same time, various strategic points of the cities started to change control. Radio and television stations were occupied by revolutionary groups that sought to disseminate communicates and messages. Some administrative buildings remained in hands of committees formed by students, merchants, and political activists.

 In other places, arsenals and military depots passed the hands of groups that had organized in popular neighborhoods. In Thran, the streets became a setting of constant movement. Trucks full of volunteers circulated through different districts while the people raised improvised barricades in avenues and important crossings.

 Throughout those days appeared spontaneous centers of organization that functioned as points of meeting and coordination. Many were established in mosques, schools or headquarters of local associations. While the situation evolved with speed, the imperial government tried to maintain some form of authority. However, each attempt found less support.

 The prime minister Shapur Baktiar tried to sustain the functioning of the state administration but his decisions had a scope each time more limited. Many government offices simply stopped operating because the employees did not return to their posts. Between the 9 and the 10 of February, the tension reached a critical point. In various military barracks, internal confrontations occurred that reflected the division inside the armed forces.

 In some cases, groups of soldiers refused to follow orders of officers that tried to reestablish the control of the government. That fracture marked a decisive stage of the revolutionary process. The 11th of February of 1979, the monarchical regime finally collapsed. During that day, military units announced that they stopped supporting the imperial government.

 With that declaration, the political structure that had sustained the state during decades stopped functioning. Official buildings, military bases, and administrative centers passed the hands of revolutionary groups that acted in name of the new political movement. After the fall of the old government began to emerge new structures of power in many neighborhoods appeared revolutionary committees formed by local residents.

 These committees organized patrols, controlled the access to public buildings, and coordinated activities inside their communities. In parallel emerged militias linked to religious circles that assumed tasks of vigilance and order in different sectors of the cities. At the same time, provisional revolutionary courts were formed that operated outside the previous judicial system.

 These new institutions sought to replace quickly the courts that had functioned under the imperial regime. The judges and officials associated with the old judicial apparatus disappeared from the public setting while new figures assumed functions inside the emerging organs. During those days, the political landscape of Iran changed completely.

The structures that had sustained the imperial state stopped existing and in their place appeared improvised organisms that tried to organize the public life in the middle of the vacuum of power. In streets, mosques and occupied buildings, the participants of the revolution discussed the course that the country would take while the old order disappeared behind them.

first revolutionary executions sha officers executed in Thran. The Iranian revolution had just brought down the old imperial system when barely 4 days after the fall of the monarchy, the new power started to show how its justice would function. The night of the 15th of February of 1979, in the building of the Reefer School of Thran, a moment occurred that would mark the visible start of the new order.

 That place which a few days before had been a religious school had been transformed into an operation center of the revolutionary leadership close to Rhola Kmeni. There gathered clerics, religious militants, members of revolutionary committees and figures that participated in the construction of the new political system.

Inside that building began to be celebrated the first trials against high officials of the regime of the sha processes that were organized with speed and under rules completely different from those of the judicial system that had existed before. Among the first detainees figured several of the best known officers of the military apparatus of the overthrown government.

 The arrests had occurred in the middle of the chaos that followed the collapse of the imperial state. During the previous days, patrols formed by revolutionaries and sympathizers of the movement had traveled through different neighborhoods of the capital looking for figures linked with the repression of the protests that had shaken the country during months.

 Some of those arrests were carried out in private houses, others inside military installations that had remained under revolutionary control. The four men that were taken to the reefer school that night represented important positions inside the military system of the old regime. The first was the general Mechi Rahimi who had exercised as military governor of Tehran during the final phase of the government of the sha.

During the last months of massive protests, he had been responsible for coordinating units of the army and forces of security in the capital. Next to him was found the general Raza Naji, military governor of the city of Isfahan, where also massive demonstrations had occurred against the imperial government.

 Another of the detainees was the general Manucheer Kosrodad, commander of the air force, an officer known inside the army for his career in airborne units. The fourth prisoner was the general Nematola Naseri, old chief of Savak, the intelligence service that during years had been the main instrument of political vigilance of the monarchical regime.

 In the interior of the building, an improvised revolutionary court was organized. The hearings developed during the same day and lasted barely a few hours. The detainees were taken before the responsible ones of the court who presented accusations related with their role inside the state apparatus of the sha and with the repression against demonstrators during the months previous to the revolution.

 The sessions advanced with speed. There were no defense lawyers present to represent the accused, nor did a jury exist that evaluated the charges. The procedure did not include a system of appeal, nor the possibility of reviewing the sentences in a superior instance. The decisions were taken inside the same building where the detainees were found.

 The process ended quickly. Once the court announced the sentences, the four officers were moved to another space inside the complex of the Rafer school. There the place where the execution would be carried out was prepared. The condemned were placed in front of a wall while an armed group was organized at a short distance.

 Various people inside the resinto recorded what occurred. Some members of the revolutionary committees observed the procedure while the tension extended between those who were in the building. The order was given shortly after. The shots were heard inside the complex and the procedure ended in a matter of minutes.

 In that way, the generals Mechi Rahimi, Resanji, Manucher Kosrodad, and Neatahan Naseri became the first high officials officially executed by the new revolutionary regime. Their bodies were removed shortly after while the news started to circulate through the capital. The images captured during that night started to spread quickly.

Photographs and recordings showed the result of the executions and were shared by media controlled by the revolutionaries. The images were not hidden. On the contrary, they were disclosed openly in newspapers and in transmissions that sought to show what had occurred inside the Refar school. The objective was that the population saw directly how the new system acted against figures associated with the old regime.

 In the streets of Thran, the news spread with speed in bazaars, residential neighborhoods, and religious centers. What happened during the night was commented. The conversations turned around the names of the four officers and the speed with which the processes had developed. Many residents listened to the details through radios or through stories that circulated between neighbors and merchants.

During the days that followed, the building of the Reefer School continued functioning as one of the main centers of the new power. There, figures close to Kmeni gathered to discuss political and administrative decisions while the country went through a phase of reorganization. In that same place, the following steps were analyzed inside a revolutionary process that still was taking form.

Meanwhile, the revolutionary committees continued extending their presence in neighborhoods and public buildings. The improvised patrols continued traveling through streets of the capital in search of people linked with the old regime. The names of officials, officers, and administrative figures started to appear in lists that circulated among the new responsible ones of the power.

 The executions of the 15 of February marked the visible start of a practice that started to integrate itself inside the revolutionary system. The speed of the trials, the absence of traditional judicial procedures, and the immediate application of the sentences defined a model that started to consolidate in those first days of the new Islamic Republic.

 In the collective memory of the revolution, the scene of the reefer school remained recorded as the moment in which the new regime showed how its justice would operate against the old pillars of the imperial state. Kcali directs revolutionary courts. quick trials end in executions by firing squad. In the last days of February of 1979, while the new political system started to occupy the spaces that the imperial

regime had left, a completely different judicial apparatus started to function inside Iran. The revolutionary power needed mechanisms to act against figures associated with the overthrown government. And from that need emerged improvised courts that operated outside the legal norms that had existed during decades.

These courts received the name of revolutionary courts. They functioned in buildings that until recently had had very different uses, schools, administrative offices, religious installations or old military barracks. Inside those places, rapid hearings were organized where the accused were interrogated and judged under religious criteria linked to the Islamic law.

Among the persons who acquired a central position in that new system appeared a cleric who quickly became known in all the country. His name was Sade Khalckali. Ruhola Kmeni designated him judge of the Sharia inside the revolutionary courts shortly after the fall of the monarchical regime. Kalcali was not an unknown figure inside the religious movement that had participated in the revolution.

 During years he had been part of clerical circles that criticized the government of the sha. But after the revolutionary triumph his role changed in a drastic way. In a matter of weeks, he became one of the most visible responsible ones of the new judicial apparatus. From late February of 1979, Kolkali started to preside over processes against people linked with the old political system.

 The hearings were carried out in improvised rooms where religious judges, members of revolutionary committees, and people in charge of guarding the detainees gathered. The accused were taken before the court. The charges were presented and basic questions were asked about their role inside the previous government.

 In many cases, the whole procedure lasted less than 30 minutes and the decisions were taken inside the same session. Once the verdict was pronounced, the sentences could be applied almost immediately, which allowed that the revolutionary courts advanced quickly from one case to the next. This pace reflected the intention of acting with speed against those who were considered responsible for the repression during the imperial government.

 The accusations presented in these trials were supported by religious concepts that had a broad meaning inside the Islamic law. One of the most frequent charges was that of corruption on the earth. This accusation was used to point to people who according to the court had damaged the society through their participation in the old regime or through actions considered unjust against the population.

 Another common charge was that of enmity against God, a religious expression used to describe those who were considered that they had acted against the Islamic order. The use of these accusations allowed the application of severe punishments against a wide variety of figures associated with the government of the sha.

 The courts were not limited to judging military of high rank. Also, charges were presented against civilian officials, members of the forces of security, administrative responsible ones, and people who had worked inside organisms of the old state. Each one of these cases was examined inside hearings that advanced with speed and that ended with decisions announced the same day.

During March of 1979, the number of processes started to increase. The revolutionary courts functioned in several cities at the same time while new arrests were carried out in different parts of the country. In Thran, Kolkali continued presiding over sessions that attracted the public attention.

 In many occasions, the names of the accused were disseminated through revolutionary media that reported about the results of the trials. The impact of these processes extended beyond the rooms where the hearings were carried out. In neighborhoods, mosques and bizars, the names of the accused and the decisions announced by the courts were discussed.

 While the news about each new trial circulated quickly among the population, the conversations reflected the speed of the hearings and the sentences pronounced while the country went through a deep political transformation. As the month of March advanced, the number of persons condemned inside these courts continued growing. The revolutionary authorities maintained that the new judicial system should act with firmness against those who had participated in the apparatus of the old regime.

 In that context, the courts became a central instrument to consolidate the power of the new government. By April of 1979, more than 100 officials linked to the system of the sha had been executed after passing through processes inside the revolutionary courts. Among them there were military police responsible ones, administrators and figures related with institutions of the old state.

 The names of these people appeared in reports and communicates that circulated in revolutionary newspapers and in radio transmissions that reported about the decisions of the courts. In the center of that system continued standing out the figure of Sad Kalcali. His presence in the hearings, his direct style during the interrogations, and the speed with which he pronounced sentences turned him into one of the best known characters of the new judicial order.

 In different sectors of the country, one talked about the trials that he presided over and of the decisions that he took inside the revolutionary courts. While April advanced, the functioning of these courts already formed part of the new Iranian political landscape. The hearings continued developing in buildings that had been adapted to fulfill improvised judicial functions.

The detainees continued being moved to those rooms where they were interrogated by religious judges that applied the norms of the new system. In that setting, the revolutionary justice continued expanding while the country went through a deep transformation after the collapse of the imperial regime. Public hangings emerge.

 Cranes turn squares into gallows. At the beginning of the spring of 1979, the new revolutionary power already controlled the main cities of the country and the structures of the old state had disappeared almost completely. The weeks posterior to the fall of the monarchy had been marked by quick trials against figures associated with the imperial regime.

 But starting from April, another method began to appear that would change the landscape of the executions in Iran. This procedure started to be used first inside detention centers and later in open spaces where the population could observe what occurred. The method was hanging during the first months posterior to the revolutionary triumph.

The emerging authorities sought forms of applying the sentences pronounced by the revolutionary courts. The firing squad had been used in the first processes against high officials of the regime of the sha. But soon appeared another form of execution that became each time more frequent.

 The authorities started to use ropes placed around the neck of the condemned. The procedure developed with speed and could be carried out with few participants. In a beginning, these executions were carried out inside closed installations. Improvised prisons, courtyards of barracks or spaces inside buildings under revolutionary control functioned as places where the sentences were applied.

However, as the spring of 1979 advanced, the authorities started to move some of these executions to the public space. With that change, the method acquired a different character. No longer it was about only applying a judicial sentence, but of doing it in a visible setting for the population. One of the elements that defined these public executions was the use of construction cranes.

 In various cities, the authorities used machinery that normally was employed in urban works. The procedure was simple. The prisoner was taken to the place of the execution, generally with the hands tied behind the back and placed under the crane. Then a rope was placed around his neck and the other end was fixed to the hook of the machine.

 When the operator activated the mechanism, the metal arm started to rise slowly and the body of the condemned rose from the ground before the gaze of the people gathered in streets and nearby squares. Unlike the hanging systems designed to cause an immediate death through the fracture of the neck, this method usually caused death by strangulation, a process that could be prolonged during several minutes while the body remained suspended in the air.

In many cases, even after the person had died, the body was left hanging for hours as a visible warning for those who passed by the place. With the passing of the weeks, the public execution started to be carried out in several cities of the country. In Thran, political capital and center of the new revolutionary power, some squares and open spaces became settings where these sentences were applied.

 The cranes were placed in the middle of wide streets or in points where a large number of people could gather. The inhabitants of the nearby neighborhoods found out about what was going to happen by rumors, announcements, or simply by seeing how the crowd gathered around the machinery. The scene was repeated with similar characteristics in other important cities.

 In Kwam, one of the main religious centers of the country, public executions were carried out that attracted the attention of residents and visitors. In Tabris, one of the largest cities of the Iranian Northwest, also similar procedures were carried out in open spaces. Mashad, situated in the northeast and known for housing one of the most important religious sanctuaries of Iran, was another place where the authorities applied the same method.

When a public execution was organized, the condemned was taken to the place under custody of members of revolutionary committees or of forces linked to the new power. The hands of the prisoner could be tied behind the back while he was placed under the crane. Once the rope was secured around the neck, the operator started to lift slowly the arm of the machinery.

 The crowd observed while the body rose. In many cases, the procedure did not end immediately after the death of the condemned. The authorities left the body suspended during hours. That prolonged permanence turned the scene into a visible reminder of the capacity of the new state to punish those who it considered enemies of the revolutionary system.

 The people who passed by the place could see the body hanging even after the execution had ended. The images of these executions also started to circulate through different media. Photographs taken during the procedures showed the condemned suspended from the cranes in the middle of streets or squares. Some of those images appeared in publications that documented the events of the first months of the revolution.

 The dissemination of these photographs reinforced the visibility of the method and transmitted the message that the authorities sought to show. The impact of these scenes in the daily life was immediate. In neighborhoods close to the places where the executions were carried out, the people commented on what happened during hours or days after the event.

 The witnesses described the sound of the motor of the crane rising slowly and the moment in which the body stopped moving. The stories circulated among merchants, workers, and residents that had witnessed the procedure. With the passing of the months of 1979, the use of the public hanging became an element each time more visible inside the new system of punishments of the revolutionary state.

 The authorities continued organizing executions in different cities while the country went through a stage of deep political transformation. The cranes normally associated with the construction of buildings had passed to become instruments used to apply sentences in squares and open streets. In that context, the public execution started to form part of the landscape of the revolution.

 The crowds gathered around the cranes, the bodies suspended during hours, and the images disseminated by revolutionary media showed how the new power used these punishments to affirm its authority in different cities of Iran. Islamic Republic consolidated revolutionary courts become permanent. During the final months of 1979, the new political system emerged from the revolution, stopped acting as an improvised movement, and started to transform into an organized state.

 After almost a year of changes, confrontations and restructuring of the power, the revolutionary leadership sought to consolidate permanent institutions that replaced definitively the apparatus that had sustained the monarchy. In December of that year occurred one of the most decisive steps inside that process, the approval of the new constitution of the Islamic Republic.

 The constitutional text was submitted to referendum and received the official support of a broad majority of voters. The new political charter defined the structure of the system that would govern the country after the revolutionary triumph. In that document was established the figure of the supreme leader as maximum authority of the state.

 That post fell on Ruhola Kmeni who from that moment assumed formally the central position inside the new political order. His role was not limited to a symbolic function. The constitution granted him direct influence over the main institutions of the country including the judicial system, the armed forces and the religious organisms that supported the revolutionary project.

 With the approval of the constitution, the Islamic Republic started to structure its institutions with greater clarity. The organizations that had emerged in an improvised way during the first months of the revolution started to integrate inside a more defined state framework. The revolutionary committees continued operating in different neighborhoods but now coexisted with new government structures that sought to establish a centralized administration.

Among those institutions were found the revolutionary courts which during the first months had functioned as temporary mechanisms destined to punish figures of the old regime. From late 1979 those courts stopped acting only as emergency organisms. The revolutionary government decided to incorporate them fully into the judicial system of the state.

 This decision meant that the hearings, the interrogations, and the sentences issued by these courts passed to form part of the official structure of the Islamic Republic. The religious judges that presided over the processes continued exercising their authority under the supervision of the new institutional order. During the first months of 1980, this judicial system continued being applied in different Iranian cities.

 Thran continued being the political center of the country, but the revolutionary courts operated also in other regions. The local authorities received instructions from the capital and organized similar processes inside their own territories. The hearings were carried out in administrative installations, religious centers or buildings that had remained under control of the new state after the fall of the monarchical regime.

 The establishment of this judicial system coincided with the reorganization of other state institutions. The new government worked to consolidate administrative structures capable of maintaining the control over the country. The forces of security were restructured to adapt to the new political order while different organisms of the state started to operate under principles defined by the constitution approved months before.

 The consolidation of these institutions developed in an environment of constant tension. Although the revolution had brought down the imperial regime, the country continued experiencing deep changes that affected the daily life of millions of people. in different cities continued the discussions about the course that the Islamic Republic should take and about the way in which its authorities should exercise the power.

In that setting, the revolutionary judicial system became a central tool for the new state. The arrests, the interrogations, and the brief trials formed part of a process that sought to affirm the authority of the government emerged after the revolution. Each case that passed through the courts reinforced the presence of these institutions inside the state structure.

Between December of 1979 and September of 1980, the functioning of this judicial machinery already formed part of the Iranian political landscape. The revolutionary authorities had transformed courts that originally emerged in the middle of the revolutionary chaos into a permanent component of the state apparatus.

 With the constitution in effect and with Kmeni exercising formally a supreme leader, the new system continued applying its procedures while the Islamic Republic consolidated its control over the country. War with Iraq breaks out. Revolutionary executions intensify. The 22nd of September of 1980, a new episode changed the course of the country.

 That day, armed forces of Iraq crossed the western Iranian border and started a military offensive that would open one of the longest conflicts of the region. The first armored columns advanced towards Iranian territory, while Iraqi planes bombed airports and air bases. The explosions in border cities marked the start of a war that would extend during years and that would alter the daily life of millions of people inside Iran.

The first hours of the attack caused rapid movements inside the Iranian government. In Thran, the authorities convened emergency meetings to coordinate the military response. The reports that arrived from the border described intense confrontations in provinces like Kuzstan where the Iraqi troops sought to occupy strategic cities and control areas near the Shatal Aarab River.

 Among the first objectives were found Koramshar and Abadan, two port cities whose position was key for the trade and the transport of oil. While the military front opened in the west of the country, the Iranian government started to mobilize resources to defend the territory. Units of the regular army were sent towards the zones of combat.

At the same time, thousands of volunteers linked with revolutionary organizations offered themselves to participate in the national defense. Public convocations called the population to support the military effort. While the conflict extended throughout hundreds of kilometers of border, the war generated a different atmosphere inside the country.

 The government started to describe the conflict as a fight for the survival of the new state. The speeches transmitted by radio and television talked of resistance against a foreign aggression and called for national unity. In that context, the authorities started to observe any form of internal opposition under a new perspective.

 The political criticisms, the clandestine activities, and the ideological disputes started to be interpreted as possible threats. In the middle of the war, the forces of security increased their vigilance inside the cities in Tehran, Isvahan, Tabri, and other urban areas. The controls in streets and highways were intensified.

 Armed patrols circulated through densely populated neighborhoods while the revolutionary committees reinforced their presence in strategic points. The authorities argued that the country was in a state of emergency due to the conflict with Iraq and that it was necessary to act with speed against any situation considered dangerous.

 The pressure generated by the war also influenced in the functioning of the revolutionary courts. These courts continued operating inside the state structure while new arrests were carried out in different regions. The arrests could occur during security operations, in controls organized by revolutionary forces, or as a result of investigations about activities considered contrary to the government.

 The detainees were moved to interrogation centers where their declarations were recorded. Subsequently, the accused were taken before courts that examined the charges presented against them. In these hearings, cases related with collaboration with enemies of the state, conspiracies against the political system, or participation in activities considered hostile during the armed conflict were evaluated.

 The judicial procedure continued advancing with speed inside the structure established in the previous months. During this period, different methods of execution continued being applied. Some cases ended with executions by firing squad carried out by armed units in charge of applying the sentences issued by the revolutionary courts.

 In other situations, the hanging was used as form of executing the judicial decisions, a method that with the passing of the time started to be employed with greater frequency inside the revolutionary penal system in part because it could be carried out with less preparation and allowed executing several prisoners in the same period. Both procedures formed part of the tools used by the revolutionary judicial system to punish those who were declared guilty inside these processes.

 As the war advanced, the authorities affirmed that the country needed to act with firmness against any threat. The official speeches insisted that the fight against Iraq demanded internal discipline and constant vigilance. In that environment of tension, the operations of security continued developing inside the cities while the military front remained active in the west of the country.

 Meanwhile, the combats at the border continued intensifying. In Koramshar, the Iranian forces tried to stop the advance of Iraqi troops that sought to take control of the city. The urban battles were prolonged during days while the defenders tried to resist the attack. In other zones near the Persian Gulf, also confrontations were registered that caused displacements of population and damages in local infrastructures.

The war transformed the pace of the daily life in many parts of Iran. In the streets of Thran appeared posters that called to support the military effort. The media transmitted reports about the development of the battles while the authorities asked the population to maintain the vigilance against any activity considered suspicious.

During the months that followed the start of the conflict, the relation between the exterior war and the internal politics became each time closer. The authorities pointed out that the country faced a military challenge that required national cohesion. In that context, the revolutionary judicial apparatus continued functioning inside the structure of the state while the forces of security continued carrying out arrests and presenting cases before the courts.

 Between September of 1980 and June of 1981, Iran lived at the same time two processes that advanced in parallel. In the western border, the confrontations between Iranian and Iraqi troops continued with cities that changed control or remained devastated by the combats. Inside the country, the revolutionary institutions maintained their activity while the government sought to reinforce its authority in the middle of an armed conflict that barely started to show its true magnitude.

Attack against the Islamic Republican Party. Massive executions fill prisons. At the beginning of June of 1981, the Iranian political setting went through an intense crisis that developed inside the own system emerged after the revolution. The tensions accumulated between different factions of the power ended up exploding when the parliament dismissed the president Abul Hassan Banisada.

 The vote that removed his post from the head of the executive occurred after weeks of political confrontations with sectors close to the religious leadership. The decision caused protests in several cities and generated an immediate reaction among opposing groups that already maintained a conflictive relation with the revolutionary government.

 Among those organizations was found the group Mujahedin Ekal known also by its initials MEK. During the previous months, this organization had passed from collaborating partially with revolutionary sectors to facing openly the new state. After the presidential dismissal, militants of the movement called demonstrations in Thran and other cities.

 The marches derived quickly into clashes with forces of security and members of revolutionary committees that tried to control the streets. The political environment became even more tense a few days later. The 28th of June of 1981 occurred one of the most serious attacks against the new government. That day, a powerful explosion destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Republican party in Thran during a meeting of leaders of the movement that sustained the regime.

 The detonation caused the death of more than 70 officials of high level. Among the victims was found Muhammad Behesi, chief of the judicial power and one of the most influential figures inside the political structure that had emerged after the revolution. The magnitude of the attack caused an immediate response by the state. The authorities declared that the attack formed part of a conspiracy organized against the government.

 In the days following began security operations at large scale destined to identify and capture people considered linked with opposing groups. The raids extended through different cities of the country and caused thousands of arrests. In Thran, the forces in charge of the security carried out arrests in neighborhoods where it was suspected that clandestine cells operated.

 Police vehicles traveled through densely populated streets while armed agents searched buildings and homes. Similar situations developed in other important cities like Isvahan, Shiraz and Mashad where the authorities organized operations to locate people accused of participating in activities against the government.

 Many of the detainees were moved to penitentiary installations where they remained under custody while their cases were reviewed. Two centers of detention acquired special relevance during this period. One of them was the even prison located in the north of Thran known for housing numerous political prisoners. The other was the Gohardash prison situated near Karaj that also started to receive a large quantity of detainees linked with investigations related with political opposition.

 Inside these prisons began to develop judicial processes directed by revolutionary courts. The detainees were presented before judges in charge of reviewing the accusations formulated by the investigators. The hearings were carried out with speed and many decisions were taken the same day in which the cases were examined. During the months that followed the attack of June, the number of convictions increased in a notable way.

 The authorities maintained that it was necessary to respond with firmness against attacks against the state. Inside the prisons, the sentences were executed through hanging. The executions were carried out in groups of prisoners to accelerate the process and allow that the judicial system continued reviewing new cases that arrived from different parts of the country.

 The pace of these executions intensified during the summer and the autumn of 1981. In Evan and in Gohardashed, procedures were organized that allowed applying the sentences issued by the revolutionary courts without long intervals of time. According to various estimates, more than 2,000 people were executed in Iran during that year, a figure that reflected the magnitude of the repression deployed after the attack against the Islamic Republican party.

 At the same time that these operations developed inside the political field, the country faced another problem that also caused the intervention of the revolutionary judicial system. Since years ago, Iran formed part of one of the main routes of the traffic of opium proceeding from Afghanistan. This illegal trade crossed border regions and extended towards different markets inside and outside the country.

 The government decided to respond with severe measures against this phenomenon. During the decade of 1980, extremely hard anti-drug laws were introduced that established the death penalty for those who were declared guilty of traffic or possession of determined quantities of opium, morphine, or heroin.

 These norms expanded the number of crimes punished with execution within the revolutionary judicial system. Many of the accused for crimes related with narcotics were judged in revolutionary courts using quick procedures similar to those applied in political cases. The suspects were detained by forces of security, interrogated by investigators, and subsequently presented before judges in charge of deciding their judicial fate.

The convictions imposed in these processes were executed mainly through hanging. Throughout the decade of 1980, the executions for crimes related with narcotics became a frequent phenomenon inside the country. Each year, hundreds of people were executed under these laws, which contributed to Iran registering one of the highest execution rates of the world in proportion to its population.

While the judicial system continued applying these sentences, the country continued living under the pressure of internal and external conflicts. The prisons remained full of detainees accused of different activities considered contrary to the state, and the revolutionary courts continued processing cases that arrived from different regions.

 During the rest of 1981, the operations of security and the executions inside penitentiary centers continued forming part of the daily functioning of the revolutionary judicial system. Summer of 1988, thousands of prisoners executed secretly. In July of 1988, the war between Iran and Iraq entered in its final stage. After eight years of confrontations, destroyed cities, millions of mobilized and enormous human losses, the Iranian government decided to accept the resolution 598 of the Security Council of the United Nations that proposed a

ceasefire between both countries. The decision was announced publicly by the authorities and meant that the military conflict that had started in September of 1980 reached a formal pause. During weeks, the news transmitted by radio and television talked of the sessation of hostilities and of the end of one of the longest conflicts of the region.

However, in the middle of that military change occurred another event that altered again the internal situation of the country. Shortly after the announcement of the ceasefire, the organization Mujahedin Khalk launched an armed offensive against Iranian territory. The operation received the name of operation forrojidan which in Persian means eternal light.

 Combatants of the group crossed the border from Iraq and advanced towards the interior of the country with the intention of causing an uprising against the government. The Iranian forces responded quickly to the incursion. Military units, members of the revolutionary guard and armed volunteers mobilized to stop the advance of the insurgent column.

 The confrontations developed mainly in the western region of the country near the province of Kermancha. After several days of combat, the Iranian troops managed to stop the offensive and forced the attackers to withdraw. While these confrontations occurred in the western front, inside the country started to develop a completely different operation.

 The Iranian authorities interpreted the incursion of the MEK as a sign that there existed an internal threat inside the prisons where numerous political opponents remained detained. Many of these prisoners had been arrested years before during security campaigns or during the political confrontations that followed the revolution.

 At the end of July of 1988 began to be organized special courts in charge of reviewing the situation of these prisoners. These instances were known subsequently as commissions of the death. The courts were formed by judicial officials and representatives of the religious apparatus of the state. Among the people who participated in these commissions were found Hussein Ali Nayeri who acted as religious judge and Mustafa Muhammadi who performed functions inside the judicial structure linked to the ministry of intelligence. The

commissions started to move through different prisons of the country. Among the detention centers where these reviews were carried out were found penitentiary installations of Thran and of other important cities. The prisoners were called one by one to rooms where the members of the court formulated brief questions about their political positions and about their relation with opposing organizations.

Once the verdict was issued, the prisoners were removed from the interrogation rooms and moved to other zones inside the penitentiary installations. Their executions were organized through hanging. The sentences were applied in groups of detainees to accelerate the process and allow that the authorities continued reviewing new cases.

 In some cases, the prisoners were taken to closed rooms inside the jails where the executions were carried out without presence of the public. In those spaces, ropes were prepared with anticipation and the detainees were taken one after another to apply the sentences. The exact figures of victims were never officially announced by the authorities.

 However, various subsequent investigations estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 political prisoners were executed during those months. The magnitude of these figures turned the episode into one of the most serious events occurred inside the Iranian prison system since the revolution. After the executions, the bodies of many of the prisoners were removed from the jails without prior notification to their families.

 Instead of delivering them to their relatives, the authorities moved the corpses to places of collective burial. One of the best known sites associated with these burials was the cemetery of Kavaran, situated in the outskirts of Thran. In that place, mass graves were dug where numerous bodies without public identification were deposited.

 During weeks, relatives of the prisoners went to government offices and penitentiary centers to obtain information about the fate of their relatives. In many cases, the authorities did not offer details about what occurred inside the prisons. With the passing of the time, the news about the execution started to spread through testimonies of survivors and of reports prepared by international organizations.

While these operations continued inside the penitentiary system, the country tried to adapt to the end of the war with Iraq. The authorities talked of national reconstruction and of the start of a new stage after years of military conflict. Although inside the jails, the commissions continued reviewing files of political prisoners.

 During the summer of 1988, the process extended during several weeks, the interrogations were repeated in different installations while the special courts continued examining the situation of the political prisoners. The executions through hanging continued being carried out inside the penitentiary enclosures while the bodies of the executed were removed discreetly.

 When September of 1988 arrived, the activities of the commission started to decrease. The prisons had been emptied of numerous detainees that had passed through the interrogations. The mass graves in places like Cavaran remained as one of the few visible traces of what happened during those months. While the Iranian political system continued its functioning after the end of the war, after the end of the conflict with Iraq and the events occurred in 1988, the political structure created after the revolution continued functioning under

the authority of Ruhula Kmeni. However, the physical state of the religious leader had been showing an evident deterioration for time. At the beginning of 1989, he was moved to a hospital in Thran after suffering heart complications that worried the doctors responsible for his care. With the passing of the days, the medical reports indicated that his condition worsened in a progressive way.

In the night of the 3 of June of 1989, after several consecutive heart attacks, Kmeni died at 86 years old. The news caused an immediate reaction in all the country. Millions of people went out to the streets to participate in the funeral ceremonies that accompanied his public farewell. Shortly after, the position of supreme leader was assumed by Ali Kam, opening a new stage inside the political system of the Islamic Republic.