A number of inmates in Khorramabad's prison, staged a protest on Thursday, May 13, to appalling conditions in the prison and intolerable pressures on the prisoners, taking hostage mullah Mohammad Keshvari, the prison's prayer leader, and a number of prison Guards.
The confidential report says that Lorestan Governor Rassouli contacted Khatami's office and Moussavi-Lari immediately after the riot began and asked for instructions.
Subsequently, Khatami's office and the Interior Ministry instructed him to attack the prisoners and "finish the job in any way you can. This must be the first and the last time. For tomorrow every prisoner will take hostages and demands that prison gates be opened."
Revolutionary Guards then attacked the prisoners and opened fire. Mullah Keshvari, Changiz Rassoulzadeh, a Guard, and Shir-Mohammad Biranvand, a prisoner, were killed and eight Guards as well as a number of inmates were seriously wounded.
Following the riot, the regime arrested and put under torture a number of Revolutionary Guards and prison guards "suspected of collaborating with the prisoners."
The regime plans to execute 16 inmates in Khorramabad prison in order to intimidate and terrorize the public and prevent future riots. Akbar Akbari, Massoud Mohammadi, Reza Jamshidi, Alireza Mohammadi, Jamshid Heidari, Mohammad Akhtari, Behzad Khazai and Behzad Kouh-zadi, some of whom oppose the regime, are among those on death row. Two months ago, 18 Mojahedin supporters held in this prison were executed.
The clerical regime's heinous crime in Khorramabad's prison demonstrates that Khatami's rhetoric about "rule of law" and "civil society" is completely hollow. As far as popular protests or dissent are concerned, Khatami and his faction are in no way different from the regime's other factions in killings, executions and committing crimes.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 18, 1999
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