The Iranian authorities had announced last year that "rogue elements" in the security services had carried out the killings of journalists, and some Ministry of Information employees were tried in secret for the murders. The trial was condemned as a sham by the victims' families, their lawyer (who was arrested on the eve of the trial) and human rights and journalists' organisations internationally. The videos show these "rogue elements" being beaten and mistreated when interrogated, and then confessing to fantastic "crimes" including working for foreign intelligence agencies, blasphemy, adultery etc. The videos appear to have been made in the detention centre of Iran's military security agency.

Following the partial release of these tapes on January 21, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Karroubi, used the parliamentary session of Wed 30th Jan 2002 to question the 'judiciary' about the veracity of the 'interrogation' tapes. Karroubi, referring to a businessman currently in prison (who has allegededly given bribes to many officials of both factions of the Islamic regime in Iran) warned about the safety of the accused. Addressing the judiciary, Karroubi said that the accused should be kept safe and that the judiciary "should forget about making him drink hair removing cream". The security forces claimed in 1999 that Saiid Emami, the first suspect of the case of serial political murders had committed suicide in a top security prison by drinking hair removing cream.

Karroubi then referred to the tapes shown at the joint NUJ and Iran Tribunal press conference and said: "Why isn't the judiciary saying anything about these tapes? If they are false we should say so. But if they are true I am asking you, how come people who admitted to being agents of Israel walked free from these interrogations, and if they made these confessions under torture, how come their torturers are free?"

On Sunday the 3rd of Feb 2002, in a surprising statement, Niazi, the head of the military security, not only admitted that the tapes were genuine but blamed the Khatami faction for the release of the first group of prisoners accused of 'serial political murders'. He denounced the parliamentary speaker for "endangering national security", and announced that a number of people have been arrested in connection with these tapes. He further declared that distribution or sending abroad of these tapes is a capital offence, equal to treason.

Worker's Left Unity Iran has always maintained that the case of serial political murders, including the show trials of last year, left many questions unanswered. The horrific tape showing the brutal, inhumane attitude of the interrogators of the Islamic Crime's Intelligence officers, including Ameli, deputy minister of Intelligence and a man with a surname, Javad Azadeh, another senior ministry official, pose serious doubts on the 'investigations' carried by the Iranian regime regarding serial political murders. The collusion of the reformist faction, led by president Khatami, in the cover-up of this case incriminates them as much as the more conservative faction that probably ordered the murders. We are determined to help the Tribunal to translate and publicise the entire 3 hours film and to pursue our struggles for setting up an international commission of inquiry into serial political murders in Iran.

The campaign group The International Tribunal on Crimes against Humanity in Iran was set up in 1995 following the conviction of Iranian state officials of murdering opposition activists in Berlin. It is preparing documentation on the regime's human rights abuses in the hope of presenting them to an international tribunal. The victims of the serial killings in November and December 1998 included Mohammad Mokhtari (journalist and writer), Majid Sharif (translator and journalist), Mohammad Pouyandeh (journalist and writer), Dariush Foruhar and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari (political activists and journalists).