News Center- Ayatollah Khomeini, who served  as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989 ordered a series of mass executions of political prisoners on July 19, 1988. In five months, thousands of political prisoners were killed. The killings took place in at least 32 cities across the country known as “Iran's 1988 Mass Executions”.

Her four siblings executed

Maryam Akbani Monfared’s brother Abdolreza Akbari Monfared and her sister Roghieh Akbari Monfared were executed during the 1988 massacre. Another two of her brothers were executed during the mass executions in 1981 and 1984. The places where her two siblings executed during the 1988 were buried are still unknown.

Maryam Akbani Monfared began to seek justice for her siblings in the beginning of the 2000s. On December 31, 2019, she was arrested by Iranian security forces. In May 2010, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Branch 15 Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of “enmity against God”. Despite being behind bars, she keeps campaigning and raising her voice by publishing open letters about prison conditions. On October 15, 2016, she filed a formal complaint demanding truth and justice for her siblings and several thousand political prisoners who were victims of the executions in 1988.

Her prison sentence has extended for two more years

The Branch 1001 Revolutionary Court in Semnan has sentenced Maryam Akbani Monfared to two years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “dissemination of lies” for publishing open letters while there is only one year left of her 15-year sentence.