Seyed Mohammad Khatami

As the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, he had a key role in violating the right to freedom of expression, by implementing the extensive system of censorship. This took the form of prior restraints on all cultural and artistic works, including books, films, theatre and music, imposing extensive omissions in literary and artistic works and preventing the publication of thousands of books, films, and other cultural and artistic works.

Mahmoud Karimi Hakkak, Exiled to Freedom: A Memoir of Censorship in Iran, TDR (1988-), Winter, 2003, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter, 2003), pp. 17-50

Mostafa Khalaji and others, Cultural censorship in Iran, Small Media, July 2011

Writers Block: Story of Censorship in Iran, Small Media, 2014

https://smallmedia.org.uk/writersblock/

As Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and a Member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, he was responsible for drafting and approving a secret memorandum on 25 February 1991, in order to deprive Baha'is of their right to education, and other human rights. The document bans the Baha'is from continuing their education or public service employment  if they reveal their religion. 

 The 1991 memorandum on “The Baha’i Question”, Bahai World News Service, 

https://news.bahai.org/human-rights/iran/yaran-special-report/feature-articles/the-1991-memorandum-on-the-bahai-question

“Confidential Iran memo exposes policy to deny Baha'i students university education”, Bhahais World News Service, 27 August 2007

https://news.bahai.org/story/575/

“Dozens of Iranian Baha’i students banned from education due to their faith”, Iran HRM, 22 September 2019

https://iran-hrm.com/index.php/2019/09/22/dozens-of-iranian-bahai-students-banned-from-education-due-to-their-faith/

As President, and the head of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, he had direct responsibility for systematic discrimination against the Baha'i religious minority, including depriving Baha'i citizens of their right to education and attempting to deceive international bodies about the Islamic Republic's discriminatory policies.

Between 1999 and 2001, Hossein Mehrpour, Advisor to the President and Chairman of the Board for Monitoring and Supervising the Implementation of the Constitution during the 8 years of Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, wrote several letters to the Khatami's chief of staff about the pressure from international institutions on  the Islamic Republic for violation of Baha'i right to education. In a letter dated 27 February, 2001, he proposes to reduce the international pressure by banning the Baha'is from studying at the universities, not because of their religious beliefs, but because of their expression of their beliefs and making their religious beliefs public.

How "Reformists" Tried to Placate the UN Over Discrimination Against Baha'is, IranWire, 24 November 2020

https://iranwire.com/en/features/8115

Violation of the rights of Baha'i citizens in violation of the Constitution, Asoo, 12 June, 2017

https://www.aasoo.org/fa/documents/%D9%86%D9%82%D8%B6-%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82-%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%A6%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C

Deprivation of Baha'i citizens of university education, Asoo, 20 April, 2017

https://www.aasoo.org/fa/documents/61

Expulsion of a Baha'i student, Asoo, 3 December, 2016

https://www.aasoo.org/fa/documents/35

As President of the Islamic Republic, and the head of the Supreme National Security Council, he was responsible for ordering the violent crackdown on peaceful student protests in June 1999, by the forces under command of his administration’s Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Intelligence.

Following the closure of Salam newspaper on 6 July , 1999, a protest rally was held in a dormitory of the University of Tehran. Following this rally, plainclothes forces (consisting of the Basij and extremist militias such as Ansar Hezbollah) attacked the university dormitory on 9 July 1999, beating students and destroying property, and arresting a large number of students.

The IRGC dealt with the July 9 riots with the permission of the Supreme National Security Council and Khatami himself, Fars News, 9 July, 2017

https://www.farsnews.ir/news/13960418000670/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%B3%D9%BE%D8%A7%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B4%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%AA%DB%8C%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B2-%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%88-%D8%B4%D8%AE%D8%B5-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%85%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF

"Gushing Blood": A documentary about the July 9 protests, Iran Wire, 13 July, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZPoTQKnyvc

A few stories from the events of 9 July , 1999 at the University of Tabriz, Ail Khabar, 11 July, 2015

https://web.archive.org/web/20170910064220/http://elpress.ir/news/27433

The Impact of July 9 on the Iranian Student Movement, 9 July, 2006

https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/story/2006/07/060709_v-ra-iran-student

As President of the Islamic Republic, he is responsible for the torture and assassination of political dissidents, writers and intellectuals critical of the Islamic Republic, by his administration’s Ministry of Intelligence agents during the 1990’s. Those targeted include Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar (political activists and leaders of the Nation Party of Iran), Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pooyandeh (members of the Writers' Association of Iran), Hamid Hajizadeh (poet), and his 9 year old son, Karoon.

The series of murders of Iranian intellectuals and writers during the 1990s, are collectively known as the Iran Chain Murders case. With the pressure of public opinion to form an investigation committee, on 5 January 2000, the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic finally admitted in a statement to the design and execution of these murders by the agents of this ministry. On 7 January 2000, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic linked the perpetrators of these killings to the Western intelligence services. The trial eventually resulted in light sentences for the defendants, but journalists and activists who followed the cases were severely punished.

 Iran’s Chain Murders: A wave of killings that shook a nation, BBC,  2 December 2018

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46356725

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"What are the key figures involved in the Chain Murder Case Doing Today", BBC Farsi report, 2016

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Dorri-1.pdf

The announcement of the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran about serial killings, BBC Farsi, 2014

https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/2014/01/140105_l44_ministry_intelligence_serial_murders

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A review of serial killings after seven years, Radio Farda, 2005

https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/مروری-بر-قتل-های-زنجیره-ای-پس-از-هفت-سال_-بخش-هشتم،-دری-نجف-آبادی-وزیر-اطلاعات-استعفا-می-دهد.pdf

Interview with Abdolkarim Lahiji about serial murders, Radio Zamaneh, 2018

https://www.radiozamaneh.com/423195

 What are the main figures involved in the serial murders case doing today? , BBC Persian 2016

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

Ministry of Intelligence serial killings; Hamid Hajizadeh's children broke their 22-year silence, Radio Farda, 26 December, 2020

https://www.radiofarda.com/a/30968233.html