Iran Covering Up Massacre With Parking Lot?

International International News

Posted by AI on 2025-09-06 13:49:57 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-09-06 16:47:00

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Satellite images reveal Iran paving over a mass grave where thousands of people were executed in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution a troubling indication that the regime is seeking to cover up potential evidence of the killings.

The satellite images, obtained by the watchdog group Human Rights Watch, show that over the past year, officials have paved a new road and parking lot over Lot 41 at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Iran's capital, Tehran. This lot has long been identified as the burial site for thousands of victims of the Islamic Republic's post-revolution crackdown on political opponents and activists.

"By obliterating the mass grave sites, the Iranian authorities are taking yet another step to conceal the crimes committed in the late 1990s and cover up serious human rights abuses," said Michael Page, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Rights Watch.

The images are just the latest flashpoint in Iran's long-simmering controversy over its efforts to erase historical sites of violence and repression.

Last year, Iranian authorities razed a garden in Tehran where protesters had been killed in the 1979 student uprising without conducting a proper investigation, according to HRW. And in 2016, the regime concealed a mass grave believed to contain the remains of thousands of political prisoners killed in the 1980s.

Page called on the Iranian authorities to "immediately cease efforts to disturb or destroy mass gravesites and to protect these sites of vital importance to ensuring justice and accountability for past crimes."

This sentiment was echoed by Emadeddin Baghi, a prominent Iranian human rights defender and historian, who told The Guardian that Lot 41 "is proof of one of the most heinous crimes committed by the regime ... The victims deserve justice and the cemetery must be preserved as a memorial."

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have denied that the site contains a mass grave, with the head of the Tehran city council claiming that the parking lot would "be suspended at the slightest indication of presence of human remains."

But as Iran continues to pave over its turbulent past, critics worry that these efforts will only intensify as the regime faces increasing domestic resistance and international scrutiny.

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