Iran planning to execute 30,000 in repeat of horror 1988 ‘massacre' as part of desperate crackdown, insiders fear
Rattled supreme leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a surge in executions - turning hangings into public spectacles in a chilling warning to dissidents.
9
9
9
It comes as callous mullahs yesterday hanged two political prisoners who had been jailed on trumped-up charges.
Mehdi Hassani, 48, and Behrouz Ehsani, 70, were killed in cold blood for daring to oppose the barbaric regime they were forced to live under.
Earlier this year, The Sun shared a haunting voice message from dad-of-three Hassani as he lambasted the cruelty of mullahs.
Ehsani meanwhile bravely vowed he was "ready" to sacrifice his life in the ongoing fight for freedom for the Iranian people.
Iran has repeatedly unleashed lethal force on its own people - especially at times of crisis - in a sickening bid to stamp out rebellion.
Glaring vulnerabilities in the regime's grip on power have been exposed after Israel and the US launched a monumental effort to destroy its nuclear threat.
Executions and arrests are weaponised to scare dissidents, and it is feared panicked Ayatollah Khamenei is planning a similar plot to the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.
The regime was also in turmoil that year after accepting a ceasefire with Iraq.
Now, death sentences against those affiliated with the main democratic opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), are being expedited as Khamenei scrambles for control.
Chillingly, state-run Fars News Agency - a mouthpiece of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - this month issued a public call to repeat 1998's inhumane massacre as the regime fears for its survival.
British politicians and leading human rights lawyers have urged the UK government to intervene to prevent such an atrocity.
Alongside the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), they also criticised the focus on Tehran's nuclear programme, warning that it has overshadowed the worsening human rights crisis.
Baroness O'Loan DBE said: "Those threatening our national security are the same individuals planning atrocities in Iran's prisons. So, we must act, now."
Dowlat Nowrouzi, the NCRI's UK representative, told The Sun: "The international community's failure to hold the regime accountable for its atrocities, including crimes against humanity and genocide, has allowed the regime to enjoy impunity.
"It is long overdue to hold Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, and others accountable for committing these crimes.
It comes as one of Iran's longest-serving political prisoners has laid bare the dire situation in a handwritten letter shared with The Sun.
Saeed Masouri, who has spent 25 years behind bars, was forcibly dragged from his cell Qezelhessar Prison to solitary confinement.
More than 100 armed guards raided the ward Masouri was on, beating prisoners before hauling them across the floor with handcuffs and leg shackles and bags over their heads.
Masouri has been exiled to the notorious Zahedan Prison - just days after penning a haunting letter warning a massacre is looming.
9
9
9
9
He wrote: "Just as it happened in 1988, today we fear that the same path is being repeated, albeit with different language and methods.
"Back then, it was called the 'Death Committee'; today, it is 'Fire at discretion'.
"But this widespread repression and intensification of executions are not signs of strength—they are admissions of the regime's helplessness in the face of truth and the will of the people.
"Likewise, this so-called 'fire at discretion' is nothing but an attempt to conceal the depth of infiltration, decay, and structural collapse within the ruling system—failures they now seek to compensate for by exacting revenge on the people of Iran and their prisoners."
All contact between political prisoners and their families has now been cut off.
Ms Nowrouzi added: "The assault on Mr. Masouri is not an isolated incident.
"It is part of a broader campaign of escalating executions, arbitrary detentions, and systematic repression.
"The regime, emboldened by decades of impunity and inaction, is now openly signaling its intent to repeat the horrors of 1988.
"As Mr. Masouri warned in his message from prison, 'a crime is in progress,' and the world must not remain silent."
Iran's calculating mullahs meanwhile are refusing to hand the bodies of slain Ehsani and Hassani back to their grieving families.
How Iran is stifling critics after defeat to Israel
by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
TYRANNICAL leaders in Iran have demanded citizens act as undercover informants to turn in anyone who dares oppose the regime, insiders say.
Panicked mullahs have also ordered "telecom cages" be installed around prisons as the regime wages war against its own people.
Political prisoners - largely banished to death row on trumped-up charges - have been subject to extreme torture and a disturbing rate of executions in the face of growing tensions in the Middle East.
Insiders say their treatment is being weaponised to deter opposition.
The fight against repression has loomed large for decades in the rogue state - but the so-called 12-day war last month has made the barbaric Ayatollah more fearful than ever of being toppled.
Sources inside Iran told The Sun how a direct alert has been issued to the public, urging them to report any activity linked to resistance groups of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Regime loyalists have been implored to act as informants - compiling detailed reports with photos, times, locations, licence plates and facial features of suspected individuals.
Orders were publicised in an official government news outlet - marking a distinct shift in the paranoid regime's usual strategy of covert suppression.
Insiders noted it points to the regime's growing perceived threat posed by the PMOI's grassroots operations.
The PMOI has long fought for a secular, democratic Iran, and is understood to be gaining traction amid frustration with economic hardship, political repression, and international isolation.
Insiders say they are instead planning to secretly bury them in a twisted bid to cover up their actions.
Hassani's devastated daughter, who bravely campaigned for her dad's release, wept as she told how they had not been informed of his execution.
In a harrowing video message shared with The Sun, she said: "They didn't grant him a final visit before the execution.
"None of us knew, not even my father, who had told my sister to visit him on Monday.
"I don't know what to say. I fought so hard. I had so much hope, so much… I still can't believe what has happened."
Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the NCRI, has called on the United Nations to take "concrete and effective measures against a regime built on executions and torture".
Mrs Rajavi said: "They [Ehsani and Hassani] now join the eternal ranks of those who have given their lives in the struggle for freedom and justice.
"In what appears to be a desperate act during the twilight of his rule, Khamenei has perpetrated yet another grave crime - an effort to delay the inevitable collapse of his regime.
Ayatollah 'on his heels'
by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
IRAN'S merciless regime is "fully on its heels" - leaving the Ayatollah's days numbered, a former US ambassador says.
But the West will not be able to topple Tehran's brutal dictatorship, Mark D. Wallace, CEO & Founder of United Against Nuclear Iran, warned.
The ex-ambassador to the UN said it will be down to the Iranian people - who have suffered outrageous repression for decades - to finally end the regime's rule.
Iron-fist fanatics have used violent and ruthless measures, including executions and torture, in a twisted bid to stamp out opposition and silence critics.
The regime's future now appears to be hanging by a thread, however, as it sits in a "combustible state" following the obliteration of its nuclear empire by the US and Israel.
Several of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's top military brass were wiped out in the 12-day war - leaving the barbaric ruler vulnerable.
Power held by Iran's terror proxies - including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen - has also been severely depleted.
Wallace told The Sun: "The regime isn't just wounded, they're fully on their heels."
"Far from securing his hold on power, this brutality only intensifies the outrage of the Iranian people and reinforces the determination of Iran's courageous youth to bring an end to this theocratic tyranny.
"Honour to these steadfast Mojahedin who, after three years of unwavering resistance under torture, pressure, and threats, fulfilled their solemn pledge to God and the people with pride and dignity."
It comes after The Sun reported how Iran's wounded regime massacred defenceless inmates at a prison before blaming their deaths on shrapnel from airstrikes.
As Israeli missiles rained down on a nearby military site on June 16, panicked inmates at Dizel-Abad Prison in Kermanshah begged to be moved to safety.
But they were instead met with a hail of bullets from the regime's merciless enforcers in a "deliberate and cold-blooded act", a witness said.
Meanwhile, sweeping arrests are also plaguing Iran's population - with around 700 people understood to have been detained last month with reported links to a "spy network".
Iran has one of the most horrific human rights records in the world, and according to campaigners also holds the harrowing title for the highest execution rate.
Official records show that the number of executions last year reached 1,000 - the highest number in 30 years and 16 percent higher than the previous.
Insiders believe this year that distressing toll will be much higher.
9
9
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Liz Truss accuses Kemi Badenoch of not telling the truth about Tory failures as former PM hits back at Conservative leader over her mini-budget criticism
Liz Truss has accused Kemi Badenoch of 'repeating spurious narratives' rather than telling the truth about Tory failures. The former prime minister said she believes the Tory Party will be in 'serious trouble' unless it starts to admit failures over the economy and human rights during its last spell in government. It follows Mrs Badenoch's remarks that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were making 'even bigger mistakes' than Ms Truss had in her mini-Budget in September 2022 – a month before she quit No 10. 'It is disappointing that instead of serious thinking like this, Kemi Badenoch is instead repeating spurious narratives,' Ms Truss wrote in the Telegraph. 'I suspect she is doing this to divert from the real failures of 14 years of Conservative government in which her supporters are particularly implicated.' She described as 'a fatal mistake' the decision not to repeal Labour legislation including the Human Rights Act, accusing modernisers of wanting to be 'heirs to Blair'. She also took aim at Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, saying that 'draconian lockdowns' caused huge damage, adding that the economy 'was wrecked with profligate Covid spending' by then chancellor Rishi Sunak. The war of words risks sparking a row within the party, Ms Truss added that the 'huge increase in immigration has been a disaster'. Mrs Badenoch previously kept criticisms of Ms Truss private, telling her shadow cabinet in January that it would be helpful if her predecessor made fewer interventions. But on Saturday she made her first major public criticism of the ex-Tory prime minister, saying Labour had not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget. She said the bond markets are 'increasingly jittery about the levels of borrowing today', and warned that the 'mismanagement' of the economy will have 'real consequences' on workers. Writing in The Telegraph, she said: 'For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes. 'They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books.' Ms Truss hit back at the comments, saying it was Mrs Badenoch who had not learned the lessons of the mini-budget. She tweeted: 'Kemi has not learned the lessons of the Mini Budget, which is that when Conservative MPs fail to back tax cuts, fracking and welfare restraint, they get booted out of office. 'The Bank of England has since admitted that two thirds of the market movement in 2022 was down to their failure to regulate pensions properly. 'Kemi Badenoch needs to do the work and actually analyse what happened in 2022 and hold the Bank of England to account.' The weeks following Ms Truss's mini-budget saw adverse market reaction and mortgage costs soar. She was ejected from office after just 49 days - becoming Britain's shortest-serving prime minister. Since entering office, Labour has been highly critical of Ms Truss's handling of the economy. Ms Truss hit back at the comments, saying it was Mrs Badenoch who had not learned the lessons of the mini-budget. At the start of this year, the ex-PM's lawyers sent a letter to No10 insisting Sir Keir's claim that she 'crashed the economy' is defamatory. But Downing Street said the PM would not soften his language about Ms Truss's premiership. Sir Keir's official spokesman said at the time: 'There's only so much I can talk about previous administrations, but you've got the Prime Minister's language which he absolutely stands by in relation to the previous government's record, and you don't have to take it from the Prime Minister.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
I saw many atrocities as a senior aid official in Gaza. Now Israeli authorities are trying to silence us
Gaza has been held under water for 22 months, allowed to gasp for air only when Israeli authorities have succumbed to political pressure from those with more leverage than international law itself. After months of relentless bombardment, forced displacement and deprivation, the impact of Israel's collective punishment of Gaza's people has never been more devastating. I have been part of coordinating humanitarian efforts in Gaza since October 2023. Whatever lifesaving aid has entered since then has been the exception, not the rule. More than a year after the international court of justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to 'take all measures within its power' to prevent acts of genocide – and despite all our warnings – we are still witnessing starvation, insufficient access to water, a sanitation crisis and a crumbling health system against a backdrop of ongoing violence that is resulting in scores of Palestinians being killed daily, including children. Powerless to change this, we humanitarians have resorted to using our voices – alongside those of Palestinian journalists who risk everything – to describe the appalling, inhuman conditions in Gaza. Speaking out, as I'm doing now, in the face of deliberate, preventable suffering is part of our role to promote respect for international law. But doing so comes at a price. After I held a press briefing in Gaza on 22 June in which I described how starving civilians were being shot while trying to reach food – what I called 'conditions created to kill' – the Israeli minister of foreign affairs announced in a post on X that my visa would not been renewed. The Israeli permanent representative to the UN followed up at the security council announcing that I would be expected to leave by 29 July. This silencing is part of a broader pattern. International NGOs face increasingly restrictive registration requirements, including clauses that prohibit certain criticism of Israel. Palestinian NGOs that, against the odds, continue to save lives daily are cut off from the resources they need to operate. UN agencies are increasingly being issued only six, three or one-month visas based on whether they are considered 'good, bad or ugly'. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unwra) has been targeted through legislation, its international staff barred from entry and its operations slowly suffocated. These reprisals cannot erase the reality we've witnessed – day in, day out – not just in Gaza but in the West Bank too. What I have observed there looks different from what is unfolding in Gaza, but there is a unified purpose: severing territorial continuity and forcing Palestinians into ever-shrinking enclaves. Palestinians in the West Bank are daily being coerced and contained: coerced by settler violence and demolitions out of areas where settlements are expanding and contained by a network of movement restrictions into disconnected built-up areas where there are increasing military operations. Gaza is also being fragmented. Its 2.1 million people are now being crammed into just 12% of the land area of the Strip. I remember receiving the chilling call on 13 October 2023 announcing the forced displacement of the entirety of northern Gaza. Since that brutal opening act, almost all of Gaza has been forcibly displaced – not once but repeatedly – without sufficient shelter, food or safety. I have seen first-hand what appears to be the systematic dismantling of the means to sustain Palestinian life. As part of our role to coordinate humanitarian operations, my colleagues and I have helped carry patients out of dark, cat-infested ICU wards in destroyed hospitals overtaken by Israeli forces where the dead were being buried in the courtyard by the last remaining sleep-deprived staff who had witnessed their colleagues being marched away. We helped uncover mass graves in other hospital courtyards where families searched through scattered clothes trying to identify loved ones who had been stripped before being killed or disappeared. We have argued with soldiers who were trying to forcibly remove a screaming spinal cord injury patient from an ambulance while being evacuated from a hospital. We have repatriated the bodies of humanitarian workers killed by drone strikes and tank fire while trying to deliver aid, and collected the bodies of family members of NGO workers who were killed in sites acknowledged by Israeli forces as 'humanitarian' locations. We have seen medics in their uniforms killed and buried under ambulances crushed by Israeli forces. Overcrowded shelters for displaced people bombed, with parents clutching their injured or dead children. Countless bodies in the streets being eaten by dogs. People calling from beneath rubble, with help from first responders denied until no one was left breathing. Children wasting away from malnutrition while aid navigates an insurmountable obstacle course of obstructionism. Israeli authorities accuse us of being the problem. They say we are failing to collect goods from the crossings. We aren't failing, we are being obstructed. Just last week I was on a convoy headed to Kerem Shalom crossing from inside Gaza. We escorted empty trucks through a densely crowded area, an unnecessarily complicated route provided by Israeli forces. When the trucks were lined up at a holding point and the green light to move to the crossing finally came from Israeli forces, thousands of desperate people moved with us, hoping the trucks would return with food. As we crawled forward, people clung to the vehicles until we saw the first dead body on the side of the road, shot in the back from the direction of Israeli forces. At the crossing, the gate was shut. We waited around two hours for a soldier to open it. That convoy took 15 hours to complete. With other convoys, Israeli forces have delayed returning trucks while crowds gather and killed desperate people who were waiting for the trucks to arrive. Some of our goods have been looted by armed gangs operating under the watch of Israeli forces. During the ceasefire, we ran multiple convoys a day. Now chaos, killing and obstruction are again the norm. Aid is vital, but it will never be a cure for engineered scarcity. The ICJ has been clear. In its binding provisional measures, it not only ordered Israel to prevent acts prohibited under the genocide convention, it also ordered Israel to enable urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including by increasing aid crossings. In a separate advisory opinion, the ICJ left no room for doubt: Israel's ongoing occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful under international law. Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are different parts of the same picture. What is unfolding is not complicated. It is not inevitable. It is the result of deliberate political choices by those who create these conditions and those who enable them. The end of the occupation is long overdue. The credibility of the multilateral system is being weakened by double standards and impunity. International law cannot be a tool of convenience for some if it is to be a viable tool of protection for all. Gaza is already drowning beneath bombs, starvation and the relentless grip of the blockade on essentials for survival. Every delay in enforcing the most basic rules meant to protect human life is another hand pressing Gaza down as it struggles for breath. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Hamas terrorist called Starmer's plan to recognise a Palestinian state one of the ‘fruits' of October 7 attack
A SENIOR Hamas terrorist has called Sir Keir Starmer's plan to recognise a Palestinian state one of the 'fruits' of the October 7 attack. It comes after the PM said he would declare recognition next month unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire. 2 France and Canada will do the same. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said: 'The initiative by several countries to recognise a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7. "We have proven that victory over Israel is not impossible, and our weapons are a symbol of Palestinian honour.' The bombardment of Gaza began after about 1,200 were killed in the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel in 2023, with 200 taken hostage. Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar took aim at Britain and its allies for the change in stance. He said: 'If this is who applauds you, what does it say about you?' The Tories last night intervened in the row saying that Hamas — deemed a terror group in the UK — has been strengthened by the statehood plan. Supporters of Israel also said it failed to impose any conditions on Hamas, including release of any remaining hostages. Starmer vows UK will recognise Palestine in weeks unless Israel ends crisis – but critics blast 'reward' for Hamas 2
