Picture of a group of political prisoners executed in 1980s

In the summer of 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran massacred thousands of political prisoners across the country. They were buried in mass graves.

The Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to provide any information or details about the massacres or the location of the victims’ graves, although a number of mass graves have been discovered by the families. Khavaran cemetery in the south western suburbs of Tehran, the capital of Iran, is the most well-known place of such mass graves.

The massacre of political prisoners was the culmination of the Islamic Republic’s policy of repression against its opponents in the 1980s during which around 20,000 dissidents disappeared, died under torture or were executed either by firing squad or by hanging.