Submission to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Throughout the 1980s, the Iranian authorities arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared and killed thousands of people for their political opinions or religious beliefs. The killing spree reached horrific levels in August and September 1988 when the authorities implemented a plan to systematically liquidate political prisoners across the country. In just a few weeks, an estimated 5,000 political prisoners were rendered incommunicado, executed in secret and without trial, and dumped in unmarked individual and mass graves.