David Belfield

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David Belfield (also known as Hassan Abdulrahman, aka Dawud Salahuddin) is an African-American convert to Islam that killed a Iranian critic of Ayatollah Khomeini and fled to Iran.^[1]^[2]

1 American charges
2 Exile
3 Film appearances
4 References

[edit] American charges

Belfield has admitted to and is charged with assassinating a former Iranian diplomat, and supporter of the exiled Shah of Iran, in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1980.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Exile

Belfield left the USA, and has spent much of the time since then living in Iran. He has occasionally traveled to Arab countries and North Korea, but has been careful not to expose himself to being extradited back to the United States to stand charges for homicide.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Film appearances

Belfield played a sympathetic major character who aided the heroine of the 2001 film Kandahar. The heroine of the film is a Canadian woman, born in Afghanistan, who slips back into Afghanistan, before the fall of the Taliban in order to try to rescue her sister. During her travels she is befriended by an English speaking medic who turns out to be an exiled American political activist. The heroine of the film really did travel to Afghanistan, in an attempt to rescur her sister. And Belfield, an exiled American political activist, plays an exiled American political activist.

In 2006 film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond released a film entitled "American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan", about Belfield. Lafond's film stirred controversy. Some reviewers thought it was too sympathetic to Belfield.^[4] Other reviewers have expressed the opinion that Lafond should not address controversial topics because he is married to the current Governor General of Canada, Michaelle Jean.

One review reports that in Lafond's film: ^[5]

"...even its subject admits his crime means eternal damnation, and it did nothing to advance the cause of blacks in the U.S."