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Erasing the Traces of Crimes against Humanity and Genocide is a Continuation of these Crimes, and Khamenei and Other Leaders of the Regime Must be Held Accountable.
On August 11, 2025, the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported the destruction and leveling of Section 41 of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, the burial site of thousands of martyrs of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) who were executed by the regime in 1981. It emphasized that obliterating the evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity constitutes participation in these heinous crimes.
Eight days later, on August 19, 2025, Davoud Goodarzi, Tehran’s Deputy Mayor, in what was both a justification and a shameless admission, stated: “Section 41 was just left there, and we needed a parking lot, so we got permission from the officials and turned it into a parking lot.” (Didban-e Iran website – August 19, 2025). This brazen confession demonstrates the involvement of the highest state authorities in erasing the traces of crimes against humanity. The term “officials” in the context of the religious fascism ruling Iran is a clear reference to regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei or figures close and connected to him.
The Iranian Resistance has repeatedly declared that the regime is systematically seeking to destroy the graves of the 1980s martyrs.
In a statement issued on June 27, 2017, the Secretariat of the NCRI announced: “The clerical regime in Tabriz has destroyed the graves of Mojahedin executed in the 1980s, especially the martyrs of the 1988 massacre, in the Vadi Rahmat Cemetery. So far, the graves of 75 martyrs, including martyr Akbar Choupani and Sorayya Abolfathi—who was executed while pregnant—have been destroyed.”
The same statement further noted: “Last month in Mashhad as well, the mass graves of the martyrs of the PMOI were destroyed in the Behesht-e Reza Cemetery. Likewise, in Ahvaz, executioners, in order to eliminate the martyrs’ graves, widened the road. During earth removal operations in the area at the end of Phase 2 of Padadshahr and Bonakdar Boulevard in Ahvaz, the remains of bodies piled up in a mass grave covered with cement were exposed. Regime agents quickly covered the mass graves with soil and continued with the street expansion.”
In a statement issued on April 24, 2021, it was reported: “The religious fascism ruling Iran, in an anti-human crime, intends to obliterate the burial site of the martyrs of the 1988 massacre in Khavaran Cemetery in order to erase the evidence of this great crime against humanity.”
Professor Javaid Rehman, then-UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, in his report on July 17, 2024, described the executions of 1981 as a case of “crimes against humanity and genocide.” He called on United Nations member states to invoke universal jurisdiction to investigate, issue arrest warrants, and prosecute those involved in these crimes. He also emphasized that those who ordered the commission of these atrocities or perpetuated them remain in power.
The Iranian Resistance emphasizes that the destruction of the martyrs’ graves is carried out on the orders of Khamenei and other regime leaders. It further stresses that, under international law, the obliteration of evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity constitutes the continuation of and participation in such crimes. Accordingly, the Resistance calls upon the United Nations and relevant international bodies to take urgent action to prevent the ongoing destruction of the martyrs’ graves and to bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
20 August 2025