IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 627 
Condemning the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the massacre 
of political prisoners in 1988 and the uprisings of recent years, including 
the 2018, 2019, and 2022 uprisings, and calling for justice for its 
victims. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 27, 2023 
Mr. GOODEN of Texas (for himself, Mr. COHEN, Mr. BACON, Mr. RUIZ, Ms. 
MACE, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. WEBSTER of Florida, Ms. GARCIA 
of Texas, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. SWALWELL, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mr. 
DAVIS
of Illinois, Mr. LAMALFA, Ms. CROCKETT, Mrs. CHAVEZ- 
DEREMER, Mr. CARSON, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. ELLZEY, Ms. 
JACKSON LEE, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. DUARTE, Mr. NEHLS, Mr. 
MCCLINTOCK, Mr. MOOLENAAR, Mr. WENSTRUP, Mr. MOONEY, Mr. 
BILIRAKIS, 
Mr. 
HUDSON, 
Mr. 
BABIN, 
Ms. 
MALLIOTAKIS, 
Mr. 
DESJARLAIS, Mr. GIMENEZ, Mr. MIKE GARCIA of California, Mr. 
SANTOS, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. AUSTIN 
SCOTT of Georgia, and Ms. SPANBERGER) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Condemning the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
for the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the 
uprisings of recent years, including the 2018, 2019, and 
2022 uprisings, and calling for justice for its victims. 
Whereas, in the 115th Congress, the House of Representa-
tives passed H.R. 4744 calling on the United States to 
‘‘condemn Iranian human rights abuses against dis-
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sidents, including the massacre in 1988 and the suppres-
sion of political demonstrations in 1999, 2009, and 2017, 
and pressure the Government of Iran to provide family 
members detailed information that they were denied 
about the final resting places of any missing victims of 
such abuses’’; 
Whereas H. Res. 188, ‘‘Condemning the Government of the 
Islamic Republic of Iran for the 1988 massacre of polit-
ical prisoners and calling for justice for the victims’’, was 
first introduced in the 115th Congress, cosponsored by 
four former and current chairs of the Committee on For-
eign Affairs of the House of Representatives; 
Whereas the massacre was carried out pursuant to a fatwa, 
or religious decree, issued by then-Supreme Leader Aya-
tollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that targeted the People’s 
Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahe-
deen-e-Khalq (MEK); 
Whereas the killings of as many as 30,000 political prisoners 
in 1988 were carried out based on the fatwa to execute 
all political prisoners who remained loyal to the Iranian 
Resistance, and subsequent death commissions were 
formed on July 19, 1988, whose members included the 
current Iranian regime’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, an of-
ficial from the Ministry of Intelligence, and a state pros-
ecutor, to implement the fatwa; 
Whereas prisoners were reportedly brought before the com-
missions and briefly questioned about their political affili-
ation, and any prisoner who refused to renounce his or 
her affiliation with groups perceived as enemies by the 
regime was then taken away for execution; 
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Whereas, according to Amnesty International, ‘‘the majority 
of those killed were supporters of the MEK/PMOI’’; 
Whereas the 1988 massacre victims, many of them women, 
had been imprisoned merely for participating in peaceful 
street protests and for possessing political reading mate-
rial, many of whom had already served or were currently 
serving prison sentences; 
Whereas, according to Amnesty International, ‘‘hundreds of 
members and supporters of other political groups . . . 
were also among the execution victims’’; 
Whereas later waves of executions targeted religious minori-
ties, such as members of the Baha’i faith, many of whom 
were often subjected to brutal torture before they were 
killed; 
Whereas, in a disclosed audiotape, the late Hussein Ali 
Montazeri, a grand ayatollah who served as Khomeini’s 
chief deputy, noted the regime’s efforts to target the 
MEK and said that the 1988 mass killings were ‘‘the 
greatest crime committed during the Islamic Republic, 
for which history will condemn us’’; 
Whereas the families of the executed were denied information 
about their loved ones and were prohibited from mourn-
ing them in public; 
Whereas the November 2, 2007, report from Amnesty Inter-
national concluded that ‘‘there should be no impunity for 
human rights violations, no matter where or when they 
took place. The 1988 executions should be subject to an 
independent, impartial investigation, and all those re-
sponsible should be brought to justice and receive appro-
priate penalties’’; 
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Whereas, beginning in 2017 and continuing for several 
months after protests erupted in more than 100 cities, 
the Iranian regime suppressed such protests with repres-
sive forces that resulted in at least 25 deaths and 4,000 
arrests, including decorated wrestling champion Navid 
Afkari, who was later executed in September 2020 
amidst international outrage; 
Whereas, on November 15, 2019, popular protests against 
the Iranian regime began and rapidly spread to at least 
100 cities throughout the country, and reports indicate 
that Iranian security forces used lethal force and about 
1,500 people were killed during less than 2 weeks of un-
rest, and thousands more were detained during these pro-
tests; 
Whereas, beginning in September 2022, antigovernment pro-
tests ignited in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, 
a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested 
by the morality police that enforces Iran’s mandatory 
dress code laws; 
Whereas, in several months of continuing protests in hun-
dreds of cities throughout Iran, the regime’s security 
forces have killed hundreds and arrested tens of thou-
sands of protesters; 
Whereas, according to a December 9, 2022, Amnesty Inter-
national report, ‘‘Iran’s security forces have killed with 
absolute impunity more than 40 children and injured 
many more in a bid to crush the spirit of resistance 
among the country’s youth and retain their iron grip on 
power at any cost’’; 
Whereas these protests are rooted in the more than four dec-
ades of organized resistance against the Iranian dictator-
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ship, which have been led by women who have endured 
torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and death; 
Whereas the Iranian people have been deprived of their fun-
damental freedoms for which reason they are rejecting 
monarchic dictatorship and religious tyranny, as evident 
in their protest slogans; 
Whereas, on November 24, 2022, the United Nations Human 
Rights Council established a fact-finding commission to 
conduct an independent investigation into the ongoing 
deadly violence related to the protests in Iran; 
Whereas the Iranian regime has arbitrarily and brutally sup-
pressed ethnic and religious minorities, including Iranian 
Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Christians, Jews, Baha’is, 
Zoroastrians, and even Sunni Muslims, and deprived 
them of their basic human rights, and has in many cases 
executed them; 
Whereas senior Iranian Government, military, judicial, and 
security officials have for decades ordered or committed 
egregious human rights violations and acts of terror; 
Whereas the United States should be involved in any estab-
lishment of an international investigation into the 1988 
extrajudicial killings of Iranian dissidents as well as the 
murder of protesters; 
Whereas over 900 women and men of Ashraf 3 are former 
political prisoners who witnessed prison crimes of the Ira-
nian regime, and many of them are witnesses of the 1988 
massacre and other political killings in Iran, among them 
eyewitnesses of crimes committed by Ebrahim Raisi, who 
must be fully protected for potential testimonies before 
any international courts investigating the killings in Iran; 
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Whereas, in November 2021, the Swedish Judiciary moved 
the whole court in Stockholm to Albania for two weeks 
to facilitate hearing testimonies of seven former Iranian 
political prisoners now residing in Ashraf 3, who were 
considered key witnesses for a trial related to the 1988 
massacre; 
Whereas, in an April 19, 2016, letter to a European Par-
liament Vice-President, the Prime Minister of Albania 
wrote, ‘‘Albania is fully engaged and committed to ensure 
for the Iranian refugees all rights stipulated in the Gene-
va Convention 1951, in the European Human Rights 
Convention and in the whole international legislation’’; 
and 
Whereas, according to the statement issued by Secretary of 
State Antony J. Blinken on April 24, 2023, ‘‘The United 
States condemns Iran’s continued human rights abuses 
and remains committed to supporting the people of Iran 
as they face the brutality of the Iranian regime’’: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the Government of the Islamic 
Republic of Iran for the 1988 massacre and for de-
nying the evidence of this manifest set of crimes 
against humanity; 
(2) urges the Administration and the United 
States allies to publicly condemn the massacre and 
pressure the Government of Iran to provide detailed 
information to the families of the victims about their 
loved ones and their final resting places; 
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(3) urges the Administration and the United 
States and its allies to put on their agenda to help 
the families of the victims of the Iranian regime to 
identify and prosecute the perpetrators of the 1988 
massacres and the massacres of protesters against 
this regime in the recent uprisings; 
(4) stands with the people of Iran, who are le-
gitimately defending their rights for freedom against 
repression and condemns the brutal killing of Ira-
nian protesters by the Iranian regime; 
(5) calls on the United States Government, in 
cooperation with our ally Albania, to ensure the full 
protection of the Iranian political refugees in Ashraf 
3 in Albania and for them to benefit from all rights 
stipulated in the Geneva Convention 1951 and the 
European Convention on Human Rights, including 
the right to life, liberty, and security, and protection 
of property, as well as freedom of expression and as-
sembly; 
(6) calls on the United Nations Human Rights 
Council to include the massacre of thousands of po-
litical prisoners in 1988 in the agenda of the fact- 
finding commission for an independent investigation 
launched on November 24, 2022, to investigate the 
ongoing deadly violence against protesters; and 
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(7) recognizes the rights of the Iranian people 
and their struggle to establish a democratic, secular, 
and nonnuclear Republic of Iran. 
Æ 
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