Ali Razini

In 1981, with the intensification of the repression of political organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic, Ali Razini was transferred to the city of Bojnourd in the north of Khorasan province. As a judge of the Revolutionary Court of Bojnourd, he issued heavy sentences for those accused of collaborating with these groups, and especially death sentences for those affiliated with the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MEK).

Razini: We were brave enough that we personally signed the sentence of everyone who was executed, Fars News Agency, 2016

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RAZINI-7.pdf

Ali Razini, as the head of the Judicial Organisation of the Armed Forces, in November 1991, issued a stoning sentence to three law enforcement personnel, including the third lieutenant of NAJA (Rashid Alaei) and the first lieutenant of NAJA (Ali Asghar Zabeti). The video of the stoning was later widely circulated on the Internet, while the ceremony was announced in the presence of law enforcement personnel, announcing the verdict and naming Ali Razini as the judge.

Horror of Stoning Captured on Film, Washington Times, 9 December 2002

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Horrors-of-stoning-captured-on-film-Washington-Times.pdf

Ali Razini was appointed successor in 1984, following the removal of Assadollah Lajevardi from the post of prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran. According to the testimony of political prisoners, including Mercede Ghaedi and Yadi Koohi, the repression, torture, and execution of dissidents and political prisoners continued during Razini's tenure.

In an interview with Radio Talk, Razini clarified that as a prosecutor, he followed the method of Asadollah Lajevardi and said: "The late martyr Lajevardi was a very tough and decisive person and of course he implemented the general policies of the regime that were approved by the Imam, and Mr. Montazeri's critical opinions did not have much effect on him. Montazeri had pressured the Supreme Judicial Council to appoint another person he wanted as the prosecutor.

... I know that they accepted, but they did not appoint the person they wanted. They appointed someone who was of the same caliber as the late martyr Lajevardi and who had the policies of the Imam and a decisive approach to criminals and gangs in particular. So they called me from Mashhad and made this offer to me."

80’s: 4 Claims and reactions of former political prisoners, BBC Farsi, August 2017

https://www.bbc.com/persian/40860455

Ali Razini interview with Radio Goftogoo about his tenure as Tehran Prosecutor,

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ALI-RAZINI.mp3

Following Ali Razini's success in suppressing political groups critical of the Islamic Republic in Bojnourd, he was appointed as the Religious Judge and Judge of the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad in 1981. He issued numerous death sentences for political prisoners. 

Sepideh Farsi, a Witness for Justice for Iran who was herself arrested in December 1981 on charges of harboring a MEK sympathizer, a girl who was her classmate, and was tried by Razini in January, says:

Before Razini came, no women had been sentenced to death. As soon as Razini arrived, he started issuing death sentences to girls who had really done nothing. Girls who were just handing out leaflets at school.

In the first week of January 1981, several young women prisoners were taken daily from Prison 3 in Vakilabad, Mashhad, to the Revolutionary Prosecutor's Building located next to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters to be tried by Ali Razini, the Sharia Judge. 

Sepideh Farsi states: "Sepideh Farsi says: "Those who were sentenced to death would not return to [the women's ward] of Vakilabad Prison and would remain there."

Immediately after the executions, some of the families of the executed girls told their relatives that their daughters had been raped before the executions.

Evidence obtained by Justice for Iran from relatives of three executed girls (Sima Motalebi, Mandana, and Mitra Mojavarian) shows that they were tried and sentenced to death in a matter of minutes without a lawyer.

A few days after the news of the execution of Mandana and Mitra Mojavarian was announced, one of the prison guards went to their family home and offered flowers and sweets, announcing that the IRGC guards had married their daughters before the execution.

Sima Motallabi also had written on her leg about being raped. There is no exact information about Sima Motallabi's age. The Mojahedin Organization website states that she was 20 years old at the time of her execution, but Leili Shokati, a witness for Justice for Iran, believes that Sima Matlabi was a student and 16-17 years old at the time of her execution.

According to the testimony of two political prisoners, throughout the period from September to the end of January, Ali Razini was the Sharia Judge of Mashhad and all the death sentences of young women were issued by him.

Impunity: Torture and Sexual Violence Against Female Political Prisoners in the Islamic Republic,(pp. 47-51) Justice for Iran, 2010.

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Crime-without-Aida-final22.pdf

Documentary: Last Moments, The Testimonies of the Iranian Female Political Prisoners in the 80’s, Shadi Amin, 2014

https://justice4iran.org/9359/

Ali Razini, as the Sharia Judge of the Special Clerical Court in 2012, has played a key role in suppressing dissident clerics and critics of the Islamic Republic. Among others, Razini is responsible for issuing a death sentence for Mehdi Hashemi in 1986, Mohsen Kadivar was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for propaganda against the Islamic Republic in 1999, and Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari was sentenced to seven years in prison for his participation in a conference abroad.

Untold Stories from the Case of Seyed Mehdi Hashemi, Fars News Agency, 2014

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/razini-12.pdf

The text of the verdict of Mohsen Kadivar’s case at the Court of Appeal, Mohsen Kadivar website, 1999

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/razini-13.pdf

Special Clerical Court Sentences Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari to Seven Years in Prison, Radio Farda, October 2002

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/razini-o.pdf

Documents of the Berlin Conference; Defence Bill, Jaras, 2011

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/razini-14.pdf

Ali Razini, as the Legal Deputy of the Judiciary, has participated in the suppression of peaceful protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election and the house arrest of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard. During a speech on February 19, 2011, two days after Mir Hossein Mousavi's last call to the people to take to the streets in support of the Egyptian and Tunisian people, which has led to his house arrest to this day, Razini defended their house arrests without a fair hearing and without observance of the due process.

Attorney General: The leaders of sedition will definitely be tried, Iran newspaper, February 2010

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/razini-17.pdf

In January 2018, Ali Razini defended the killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 by appearing on the television program "Dastkhat", calling it "legal and just." He also confirmed in a televised interview that the death sentences were handed down to political prisoners in 1988 while they were already serving their prison sentences.

By order of Ruhollah Khomeini, several thousand political and ideological prisoners in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who had previously been tried and were serving their sentences, were sentenced to death in minutes-long trials in August and September 1988 and were buried in mass graves. The majority of those executed were from leftist political organisations.

Dastkhat: Interview with Ali Razini, IRIB Channel 5, January 2018

http://tv5.ir/program/113278

UN recognizes victims of 1988 massacre as enforced disappearances, Justice for Iran, 2017

https://justice4iran.org/persian/reports/un-working-group-maryam-akbari/

Montazeri confirmed the role of Pourmohammadi in the 1988 executions, BBC Farsi, 2005

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RAEISI-8-.pdf

Publication of Montazeri audio file about the executions in 1988, BBC Farsi, 2016

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RAEISI-9.pdf

Geoffrey Robertson, The UN must try Iran's 1988 murderers, The Guardian, 2010

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RAEISI-10.pdf

Prosecutor V. Islamic Republic of Iran, International People’s

Tribunal, 2013

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RAEISI-11.pdf

Pour-Mohammadi and the 1988 Prison Massacres, Human Rights Watch, 2017

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RAEISI-12.pdf