Iran by the People's Mujahedin of Iran. However, this theory does not account for the fact that members of other leftist groups which never supported or took part in the Mujahedin's invasion were also targeted for execution. Survivors of the massacre have made numerous calls for redress and they have also called for the prosecution of those who perpetrated the massacre. Canada called the event a crime against humanity, and Italy made similar declarations for justice to be served. Background In order to eliminate potential political oppositions, the Islamic Republic started coordinated extrajudicial killings in Iran. Following Operation Mersad, a military attack on Iranian forces by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) desiring to gather Iranian opposition at home and overthrow the Islamic Republic, a large number of prisoners from the MEK were executed along with many other individuals from other leftist opposition groups. Khomeini used the MEK's failed invasion as a pretext for the mass execution of thousands of MEK members "who remained steadfast in their support for the MEK" and other leftists in Iranian jails through a fatwa. The executions were carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government. In 2016, an audio recording was posted online of a high-level official meeting that took place in August 1988 between Hossein Ali Montazeri and the officials responsible for the mass killings in Tehran. In the recording, Hossein Ali Montazeri is heard saying that the ministry of intelligence used the MEK's armed incursion as a pretext to carry out the mass killings, which "had been under consideration for several years". Iranian authorities have dismissed the incident as "nothing but propaganda", presenting the executions as a lawful response to a small group of incarcerated individuals who had colluded with the MEK to support its 25 July 1988 incursion. According to the US State Department, the "death commissions" responsible for the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners started on 19 July (1988) and included the current head of the Iranian judiciary and current Minister of Justice. According to Amnesty International, "thousands of political dissidents were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Iranian detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran and implemented across prisons in the country. Many of those killed during this time were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in