There are places whose importance cannot be measured in bricks and concrete.
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importance → be → bricks
On Sept. 13, Iranian authorities began a new phase in the demolition of the notorious prison in Karaj, west of Tehran.
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authorities → begin → Tehran
State media showed the walls coming down as officials announced that the site would be cleared for residential or commercial development.
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site → show → development
The head of Iran’s prisons organization said the demolition was proceeding under direct instructions from the head of the judiciary and that all of the prison’s surrounding walls would be destroyed within a month.
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all → say → month
But Gohardasht is not simply an obsolete prison occupying valuable urban land.
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Gohardasht → occupy → land
Its destruction, therefore, raises an urgent question that should concern every government represented at the United Nations: Will Tehran be allowed to destroy physical evidence of one of the gravest chapters in Iran’s modern history before that evidence can be independently examined and preserved?
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evidence → raise → history
The timing makes this especially urgent.
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this → make → ?
As world leaders gather in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, thousands of Iranians will rally outside the U.N. against executions in Iran and call for accountability for those responsible for past and present atrocities.
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thousands → gather → atrocities
Their message connects two chapters of the same story: the impunity surrounding the mass executions of the past and the executions being carried out today.
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message → connect → past
Survivors have described its corridors, isolation cells, torture chambers, and the infamous “Death Hall,” where political prisoners were taken during the massacre.
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prisoners → describe → massacre
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or PMOI/MEK, documented the prison’s layout and survivor accounts decades ago.
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Organization → document → layout
Those accounts later assumed extraordinary evidentiary importance during the Swedish prosecution of former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury.
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accounts → assume → Noury
Witnesses provided testimony, sketches, and three-dimensional reconstructions detailing Gohardasht and what occurred inside it.
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what → provide → it
The Noury case demonstrated that even decades after an atrocity, evidence can survive, witnesses can testify, and those accused of responsibility can be brought before a court.
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those → demonstrate → court
That is precisely why the destruction of Gohardasht matters.
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destruction → matter → Gohardasht
Architectural features can corroborate survivors’ accounts and help establish how prisoners were moved from their cells to interrogation rooms and execution sites.
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prisoners → corroborate → rooms
Documents or physical objects may also retain evidentiary importance.
uncertain
Documents → retain → importance
Once bulldozers reduce the site to rubble, such evidence may disappear forever.
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evidence → reduce → rubble
And Gohardasht does not stand alone.
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Gohardasht → stand → ?
For years, Iranian authorities have faced accusations of interfering with burial sites associated with the mass executions of political prisoners, including sites in Khavaran, Tabriz, Mashhad, and Ahvaz.
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authorities → face → Khavaran
In August 2025, Plot 41 of Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, containing the graves of thousands of PMOI members executed in 1981, was destroyed and leveled with heavy machinery.
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Plot → contain → machinery
The international community has already been warned about this pattern.
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community → warn → pattern
In his July 2024 report, then-U.N. special rapporteur on Iran Javaid Rehman stated that Iranian authorities had initiated what he described as a systematic campaign to destroy mass graves associated with thousands of political prisoners executed in 1988.
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he → state → 1988
He warned that this compounded the suffering of victims’ families while obstructing efforts to establish the truth and hold those responsible accountable.
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those → warn → truth
More than three decades ago, I had the privilege of representing the U.S. on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and heading the American delegation there.
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I → have → delegation
During that period, the international community was already confronting the Iranian government’s human rights record.
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community → confront → record
That experience left me with an enduring lesson: International scrutiny matters, but scrutiny without accountability is not enough.
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scrutiny → leave → accountability
Resolutions, investigations, and survivor testimony matter.
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Resolutions → matter → ?
But so does preserving evidence that could establish individual responsibility.
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that → do → responsibility
If evidence is permitted to disappear and perpetrators come to believe that the passage of time will shield them from justice, documentation alone cannot end impunity.
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documentation → permit → impunity
Iranian authorities may say that the prison was closed years ago, that Karaj has expanded around it, and that redevelopment serves legitimate economic purposes.
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redevelopment → say → purposes
But none of those arguments answers the essential question: Why destroy a site associated with alleged crimes against humanity before independent investigators have been permitted to examine and document it?
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investigators → answer → it
The U.N. should urgently call on Tehran to halt any further demolition that could destroy historically or forensically significant evidence at Gohardasht until independent experts can document the site.
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experts → call → site
Governments should demand the preservation of prison registers, architectural plans, execution records, photographs, personnel files, and other archives associated with the prison.
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Governments → demand → prison
The same principle must apply to suspected mass graves throughout Iran.
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principle → apply → Iran
Such sites should be protected from interference until independent forensic examinations can be conducted.
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examinations → protect → interference
This is not about preserving a prison as a monument.
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This → preserve → monument
It is about preserving a crime scene for justice.
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It → preserve → justice
The families of the victims of 1988 have already endured nearly four decades without accountability.
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families → endure → accountability
Many were denied the bodies of their loved ones or even knowledge of where they were buried.
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they → deny → ones
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
