The 1988 Mass Executions and the “Death Committee”
Hossein Ali Nayyari’s name is most infamously associated with the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners. That year, in the aftermath of the failed Operation Eternal Light by the MEK and as the Iran-Iraq War drew to a close, the Islamic Republic undertook a massive purge of prisoners accused of maintaining opposition to the Islamic regime.
Ayatollah Khomeini issued a secret fatwa, declaring that prisoners who “remained steadfast in their beliefs” and did not repent were enemies of God and deserved death. To implement this order, a three-member panel—later known as the Death Committee—was formed in Tehran. The committee included:
-
Hossein Ali Nayyari as the Sharia judge
-
Morteza Eshraqi, Tehran Prosecutor
-
Mostafa Pourmohammadi, representative of the Ministry of Intelligence
-
Ebrahim Raisi, deputy prosecutor of Tehran
Together, they conducted brief interrogations of political prisoners, often asking only a handful of religious or ideological questions. Prisoners who failed the test—meaning they refused to renounce their affiliations—were executed, sometimes in batches of dozens each night.
