By Ehsan Mehrabi

IranWire

Hossein Ali Nayyeri, a key figure in Iran’s 1988 mass execution of political prisoners, has died, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.

Nayyeri served as a religious judge on the “Death Committee” that ordered the execution of thousands of political prisoners during the summer of 1988.

His death comes shortly after two other high-ranking judges, Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini, were killed in an attack, fueling speculation about the circumstances surrounding Nayyeri’s death.

Iranian judiciary officials have not disclosed the cause of his death.

Nayyeri received numerous appointments directly from the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Unlike his Death Committee colleague Ebrahim Raisi, who went on to become Iran’s president, Nayyeri remained in the judiciary throughout his career, serving nearly two decades as Deputy Chief of Iran’s Supreme Court and later as head of the High Disciplinary Court for Judges.

Beyond his role in the 1988 executions, Nayyeri held significant power over decisions related to confiscated property.

He oversaw the redistribution of assets seized from officials of the pre-revolutionary Pahlavi regime and others deemed “plunderers of public funds.”

According to historians and Iranian political observers, many of these properties were transferred to officials of the Islamic Republic.

In a 2016 leaked audio recording, Nayyeri can be heard telling then-Deputy Supreme Leader Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri that the committee had “executed 750 people in Tehran” and had separated “200 others as unrepentant” prisoners.

During that meeting, Nayyeri said: “We have executed 750 people in Tehran so far, and we have separated 200 others as unrepentant. If we return them to their cells, it will create problems.”

Montazeri, who was later removed from his position partly due to his objections to the executions, replied that he would not consent to even a single additional execution.

Nayyeri rarely spoke publicly about his role in the executions.

In one rare interview, he claimed the prisoners “were not tried for their original cases” but because “they caused trouble again while in prison” - echoing the official government position.

Reports in 2023 suggested that Nayyeri had been sent to Germany for medical treatment, though these were never officially confirmed.