Chain murders of Iran

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The Chain murders[1][2] (قتلهای زنجیره ای) or 1998 Serial Murders of Iranian dissident intellectuals, were a series of murders and disappearances[3][4] of Iranians who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way.[5] A variety of methods were used to kill the victims — car accidents, stabbings, shot in staged robberies, injected with potassium to simulate a heart attack — in what some think was an attempt to avoid outside attention from the international community.[6]

Although the killings spanned over several years and there victims included more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens,[7][8] the murders came to a head in late 1998 when three dissident writers, a political leader and his wife were murdered in the span of two months.[9]

After great public outcry and journalistic investigation in Iran and publicity internationally[10], prosecutors announced in mid-1999 that one Saeed Emami had led "rogue elements" in Iran's intelligence ministry in the killings, but that Emami was now dead having committed suicide in prison.[11] In a trial that was "dismissed as a sham by the victims' families and international human rights organisations"[12] three intelligence ministry agents were sentenced in 2001 to death and 12 others to prison terms for murdering two of the victims. Two years later the Iranian Supreme Court reduced two of the death sentences to life.[13]

Many Iranians and foreigners believe the killing were at least in part an attempt to put a stop to "cultural and political openness" being attempted by reformist Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and his supporters, [14] and that those convicted of the killings were actually "scapegoats acting on orders from higher" up,[15] with the ultimate perpetrators including "a few well known clerics."[16] In turn, Iran's hardliners — the group most closely associated with vigilante attacks on dissidents in general, and with the accused killers in particular — claimed "foreign powers", especially "Israel", committed the crimes.[17]

An indication that the authorities may not have uncovered the entire apparatus of the chain murders was the attempted assassination of Saeed Hajjarian, a newspaper editor who is thought to have played a "key role" in uncovering the killings. On March 12, 2000 Hajjarian was shot in the head and left paralyzed for life.[18]

Contents

[edit] History of chain murders

[edit] Killings

Attempted murder victim Saeed Hajjarian and murder victim Dariush Forouhar
Attempted murder victim Saeed Hajjarian and murder victim Dariush Forouhar

The first two killings in 1998 were of 70-year-old Dariush Forouhar secretary general of the Nation of Iran Party, and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari. Their mutilated bodies were found in their south Tehran home November 21, 1998. Forouhar had received 11 knife blows and Eskandari 24.[19] The home, which was later ransacked,[20] was thought to be under 24-hour surveillance by the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of Iran, [21] thus casting suspicion on that ministry for at least complicity in the murder.

Approximately two weeks later, Mohammad Mokhtari, an Iranian writer, left his residence at five o'clock in the afternoon of December 2, 1998 and failed to return home. On December 8, 1998 his body was identified at the coroner's office.[19] The next to disappear was Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, an author and "one of the active translators of the country" who left his office at four o'clock in the afternoon of December 8, and still hadn't returned home when his wife wrote a letter to the President three days later expressing her anguish over his disappearance. His body was discovered the next day.[19] Pooyandeh and Mokhtari bodies were both found around Shahriar, a "mini-city" in the south of Tehran,[19] and both were apparently strangled.[22] On the day Pooyandeh's body was found, Dec. 12, fifty writers called on President Khatami to find the persons behind the crimes.[19]

In the mean time, other suspicious and unsolved murders of dissidents were put forth by reformers: "Ahmad Miralaee, Ebrahim Zalzadeh, Ghafar Hosseini, Manouchehr Saneie and his wife Firoozeh Kalantari, Ahmad Tafazzoli." In particular, the body of Majid Sharif, a translator and journalist who contributed to the banned publication Iran-e Farda, had been found on the side of a Tehran road on November 18, 1998, three days before the bodies of Dariush Forouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari were found.[19] His official cause of death was "heart failure." [23]

There was also an unsuccessful attempt to kill a busload of writers en route to a poetry conference in Armenia in the summer of 1995. At two in the morning, while most of his passengers were napping, the driver of the bus steered the bus off a cliff near the Heyran Pass. "When the driver tried to jump out to save himself, a passenger grabbed the wheel and steered the bus back onto the road.[24] The driver tried it a second time, "diving out of the vehicle just as it careened toward the edge of the 1000-foot free fall." The bus hit a boulder and stopped, saving the lives of 21 writers. The driver ran away.[25] The passengers were taken to a nearby Caspian town, interrogated and warned "to discuss the event with no one".[26]

On December 20, 1998, a statement was issued in Tehran by a group calling itself "pure Mohammadan Islam devotees of Mostafa Navvab" taking credit for at least some of the killings. The statement said in part:

"Now than domestic politicians, through negligence and leniency, and under slogan of rule of law, support the masked poisonous vipers of the aliens, and brand the decisive approaches of the Islamic system, judiciary and responsible press and advocates of the revolution as monopolistic and extremist spread of violence and threats to the freedom, the brave and zealous children of the Iranian Muslim nation took action and by revolutionary execution of dirty and sold-out elements who were behind nationalistic movements and other poisonous moves in universities, took the second practical step in defending the great achievements of the Islamic Revolution ... The revolutionary execution of Dariush Forouhar, Parvaneh Eskandari, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh is a warning to all mercenary writers and their counter-value supporters who are cherishing the idea of spreading corruption and promiscuity in the country and bringing back foreign domination over Iran..."[27]

[edit] Alleged perpetrators

Some of the first speculation on who committed the murders was done by Iran's conservative Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest ranking political and religious authority of the country and a strong opponent of democratic reform. Khamenei blamed foreign powers, claiming "`the enemy` was creating insecurity to try to block the progress of Iran's Islamic system."[28] Conservative daily newspapers also blamed "foreign sources" intent on creating "an environment of insecurity and instability in the country," for the killings. In particular they blamed the Iraqi-based Mojahedin-e-Khalq terrorist group.

On January 4, 1999 the public relations office of the Ministry of Information "unexpectedly" issued a short press release claiming "staff within" its own Ministry "committed these criminal activities ... under the influence of undercover rogue agents ":

"The despicable and abhorring recent murders in Tehran are a sign of chronic conspiracy and a threat to the national security. The Information Ministry based on their legal obligations and following clear directives issued by the Supreme Leader and the President, made the discovery and uprooting of this sinister and threatening event the priority action for the Ministry. With the cooperation of the specially appointed Investigatory committee of the President, the Ministry has succeeded to identify the group responsible for the killings, has arrested them and processed their cases through the judicial system. Unfortunately a small number of irresponsible, misguided, headstrong and obstinate staff within the Ministry of Information who are no doubt under the influence of undercover rogue agents and act towards the objectives of foreign and estranged sources committed these criminal activities".[19]

Alleged murder perpetrator Saeed Emami
Alleged murder perpetrator Saeed Emami

Arrested for the dissident murders was Saeed Emami or Islami, the deputy security official of the Ministry of Information, and his colleagues and subordinate staff: Mehrdad Alikhani, Mostafa Kazemi and Khosro Basati.

According to Indymedia UK, "the agent named as the mastermind behind the assassinations, Saeed Emami, was reported to have killed himself in prison by drinking a bottle of hair remover."

Defendant Ali Rowshani admitted murdering Mokhtari and Pouyandeh. But he said he had done so under orders from Mostafa Kazemi, a former head of internal security at the intelligence ministry and another man, Merhdad Alikhani. Another pair of defendants admitted killing the Forouhars, a husband and wife found dead at home from multiple stab wounds. They too said they had received orders from Kazemi and Alikhani. Another man said he had assisted in the murder. Kazemi was reported telling the court on Saturday he had been the mastermind behind the killings, while Alikhani said the decision was taken "collectively."[29]

The Iranian press reported that Emami was not only responsible for the deaths of Forouhar, Mokhtari, Pooyandeh, Sharif but also earlier killings in the 1980s and 1990s of Saidi Sirjani, the Mykonos restaurant assassinations, the unsuccessful 1995 attempt to stage a bus accident in the mountains and kill 21 writers, and the unexpected death of Ahmad Khomeini, (Ayatollah Khomeini's son).[30] Human Rights activist Shirin Ebadi claims Emami's "friends reported that he belonged to a notorious gang of hard-core religious extremists who believed that the enemies of Islam should be killed."[31]

Saeed Emami's arrest was not revealed, however, until June 3 1999, six months after his reported suicide. Adding to skepticism over whether the true culprits of the murders had been found and justice done was the fact that Emami is believed to have had "round-the-clock" surveillance while in prison, being the prime suspect of a serial political murder case that aroused the whole country,[19] that hair-removal cream available in Iran may not be lethal when ingested,[32] that Emami's confession was not considered evidence and made public by the presiding judge who deemed it "unrelated to the case;" [33] that

no photos of the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence tried in Dec 2000-Jan 2001 were published, their identity remained a "state secret". Most Iranians are convinced their "confessions" are part of a deal to allow them freedom after the trials, irrespective of the verdict.[34]

and

There are conflicting reports on the manner of [Emami's] suicide. His body or its photograph have never been publicly seen and even in the 'Behesht Zahra' graveyard, where he is said to have been buried, no grave has been registered in his name.[19]

According to Iranterror.com, "it was widely assumed that he was murdered in order to prevent the leak of sensitive information about MOIS operations, which would have compromised the entire leadership of the Islamic Republic." [35]

Also noteworthy was the antagonism between the authorities and the victims' relatives. The lawyer for the victims relatives, Nasser Zarafshan, was arrested for "publicizing the case", for which her bail was set at the equivalent of $50,000 as opposed to $12,500 for some of the accused murderers. At least one of the victims' relatives, Sima Sahebi, the wife of Pouyandeh, was also arrested "for publishing a letter criticizing them for not allowing us to hold a memorial of the second anniversary of their death."[36]

[edit] Sentences

The murder trial was set for December 23, 2000. Families of the victims boycotted the trials in protest.[37] Former senior intelligence officials Mostafa Kazemi and Mehrdad Alikhani, were originally sentenced to death for ordering the murders of Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, but their sentences were reduced to life in prison by the Iranian Supreme Court in January 2003. Two agents accused of carrying out the actual murders were sentenced to 10 years each in prison.

Seven others were given prison terms from two-and-a-half to 10 years for their roles in the murders, with four or five more apparently acquitted.[38]

According to Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi the supreme court proceedings were "kept confidential on grounds of national security." No death sentences were carried out. No senior officials ever faced prosecution, and the presiding intelligence minister at the time of the killings was later promoted to a senior position in the judiciary.[39]

[edit] Investigations

Akbar Ganji (left) and Saeed Hajjarian (right) risked their lives by exposing the main figures behind the 1998 Serial Murders
Akbar Ganji (left) and Saeed Hajjarian (right) risked their lives by exposing the main figures behind the 1998 Serial Murders

Investigative journalists Emadeddin Baghi and Akbar Ganji both wrote investigative news articles on the murders. In a series of articles in Saeed Hajjarian's Sobh Emrouz daily, Akbar Ganji referred to perpetrators with code names such as "Excellency Red Garmented" and their "Excellencies Gray" and the "Master Key". [19]

In December 2000, Akbar Ganji announced the "Master Key" to the chain murders was former Intelligence Minister Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian. He "also denounced by name some senior clerics, including Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi for having encouraged or issued fatwas, or religious orders for the assassinations." [40] Conservatives have attacked Ganji and denied his claim.[19]

"Among the prominent Islamic Republic figures accused by human rights advocates of masterminding the chain murders were Mostafa Pour Mohammadi and Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ezhei, now serving as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Interior and Intelligence ministers, respectively."[41]

[edit] Retaliation against investigation

In March 12, 2000 Saeed Hajjarian, was shot in the head by an assailant but narrowly missed death, ending up paralyzed for life. He is "believed to have played a key role in bringing about ... damaging disclosures" against the sponsors of the chain killings, not only as editor of Sobh Emrouz daily, but as a former deputy minister of intelligence turned reformist. Consequently, "some believe that remnants" of the chain murder "intelligence killer group may have been" behind his attempted assassination. [42]

About the same time, Akbar Ganji attended the 'Iran After the Elections' Conference in Berlin. Upon return he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, to be followed by five years in exile (later reduced to six years imprisonment and no exile) for "retaining classified documents from the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, insulting the former Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, and disseminating propaganda against the Islamic system." [43] His prison time was marked by hunger strike and dramatic courtroom display of torture marks.[44]

Further information: Akbar Ganji#Imprisonment

Baghi was sentenced to three years in prison in 2000 and spent two years.[45]

[edit] Explanation

The killing have been blamed on forces trying to put a stop to the Iranian reform movement and its effort to create "cultural and political openness."[46] Shirin Ebadi speculates that the murders were done surreptitiously because previous mass killings "had blackened the reputation" of the Islamic Republic and hindered Iran's efforts to provide jobs and resources for its growing population and "rebuild itself" after the Iran-Iraq War.[47]

[edit] Notable victims

[edit] November - December 1998

[edit] 1988-1998

  • Hussein Barazandeh - a 52 year old engineer in Mashhad who was one of the close aides of Dr. Ali Shariati disappeared after leaving a Quran recitation session for his home. He was found dead the next day on January 3, 1995 far from his home. Initially, the reason for his death was said to be cardiac arrest, but later his family realized that the real reason was suffocation. [48]
  • Pirouz Davani - an Iranian leftist activist last seen in "late August 1998 while leaving his residence in Tehran.
  • Mehdi Dibaj - was a Christian convert from Sunni Islam who had been tried and convicted of apostasy, but then released in June 1994. He was abducted shortly thereafter and his body found on July 5, 1994.
  • Hamid Hajizadeh - a teacher and poet from Kerman, along with his 9-year-old son, were found stabbed to death in their beds on the rooftop of their home September 12, 1998.[49]
  • Ahmad Mir Alaei - a writer, translator and thinker died in Isfahan under suspicious circumstances on October 24, 1995. He left home for an appointment at a quarter to 8 am. Police called his family to report the discover of a body at eleven o'clock p.m. Cardiac arrest was said to be the official reason for his death;[50] a potassium injection is reportedly the actual reason.[51]
  • Kazem Sami - Iran's first Health Minister after the 1979 Islamic revolution, was stabbed to death November 1988 by an assailant posing as a patient at a clinic. No one was arrested.[52]
  • Siamak Sanjari - killed on his wedding night, November 1996.[53]
  • Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani - Iranian writer, poet and journalist who was imprisoned in 1994 and died shortly after while in prison
  • Ahmad Tafazzoli - a prominent Persian Iranist and master of ancient Iranian literature and culture found dead in January 1997
  • Ebrahim Zalzadeh - editor of the monthly magazine Me'yar and the director of the publishing house Ebtekar, aged 49, went missing after leaving his office for home. His corpse was found on 29 March 1997 stabbed to death.[54][55]

[edit] Survivors

[edit] See also

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ Information Crackdown, worldpress.org October 26, 2006
  2. ^ Patriotism Fails Iran, Amil Imani, Think & Ask, 2004
  3. ^ Iran Report 2001 RFE/RL
  4. ^ letter about Pirooz Davani in greenleft.org by Ardeshir Gholipoor of Port Hedland immigration detention centre WA
  5. ^ Elaine Sciolino, Persian Mirrors : the Elusive Face of Iran, Free Press, 2000, p.241
  6. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House New York, 2006, p.131-2
  7. ^ Victims of serial killings by the information ministry (1988-1999)
  8. ^ Estimates of the number of victims vary. According to marze porpohar "103 is the estimated number of the victims in the `serial murders`. But the scene of murder and the time of death of 57 victims are known. The other 46 disappeared and later their brutalized or mutilated bodies were discovered in the outskirts of the city. The actual number of murders is unknown and may be higher."
  9. ^ "Killing of three rebel writers turns hope into fear in Iran", Douglas Jehl, New York Times, December 14, 1998 p. A6
  10. ^ The Iranian Human Rights, You will answer, one day
  11. ^ GANJI IDENTIFIED FALLAHIAN AS THE "MASTER KEY" IN CHAIN MURDERS
  12. ^ Iranian killers spared death penalty BBC News 29 January 2003
  13. ^ Iran - 2003 Annual report
  14. ^ "Killing of three rebel writers turns hope into fear in Iran", Douglas Jehl, New York Times, Dec. 14, 1998 p. A6
  15. ^ Iranian killers spared death penalty BBC News, 29 January, 2003
  16. ^ GANJI IDENTIFIED FALLAHIAN AS THE "MASTER KEY" IN CHAIN MURDERS
  17. ^ Iranian killers spared death penalty BBC News, 29 January, 2003
  18. ^ Analysis: Who wanted Hajjarian dead?
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l The Dissident Murders
  20. ^ Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors, Touchstone, (2000), p.234
  21. ^ Iran Terror
  22. ^ Iranian killers spared death penalty BBC News, 29 January, 2003
  23. ^ Alarming pattern of killings and "disappearances"
  24. ^ Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors, Touchstone, (2000), p.239
  25. ^ Molavi, Afshin The Soul of Iran, Norton, (2005), p.1333
  26. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House New York, 2006, p.128-9
  27. ^ A Review of Serial Murders by Nahid Mousavi translated from Zanan [Women]; Social & Cultural Magazine (Monthly) Dec. 1999, No. 58
  28. ^ World: Middle East Arrests made in Iran murder case BBC News, December 14, 1998
  29. ^ Who killed five journalists in Iran?
  30. ^ A Man Called Saeed Emani
  31. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House New York, 2006, p.138
  32. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House New York, 2006, p.138
  33. ^ The Iranian Human Rights You will answer, one day
  34. ^ Who killed five journalists in Iran?
  35. ^ A Man Called Saeed Emani
  36. ^ The Iranian Human Rights You will answer, one day
  37. ^ The Iranian Human Rights You will answer, one day
  38. ^ Iranian killers spared death penalty BBC News, 29 January, 2003
  39. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House New York, 2006, p.140
  40. ^ GANJI IDENTIFIED FALLAHIAN AS THE "MASTER KEY" IN CHAIN MURDERS
  41. ^ Prisoners' Rights Activist Arrested and Detained
  42. ^ Analysis: Who wanted Hajjarian dead?
  43. ^ Iran: Further information on torture/ill-treatment/prisoner of conscience - Akbar Ganji Amnesty International, 2001
  44. ^ Iran's Top Journalist Accuses Authorities of Torture
  45. ^ Prisoners' Rights Activist Arrested and Detained
  46. ^ "Killing of three rebel writers turns hope into fear in Iran", Douglas Jehl, New York Times, Dec. 14, 1998 p. A6
  47. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, (2006), p.131-2
  48. ^ A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi
  49. ^ A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi
  50. ^ A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi
  51. ^ IRAN WATCH CANADA
  52. ^ An Iranian Health Authority Is Reported Slain at a Clinic
  53. ^ Victims of serial killings by the information ministry
  54. ^ Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1997)
  55. ^ A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi

[edit] Further reading

  • Iran, Islam and Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change By A. M. ANSARI (London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs). 2000, 256 pp. ISBN 1862031177

[edit] External links

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