Ali Akbar Tabatabaei (September 14, 1930 in Hamedan, Iran – July 22, 1980) was an Iranian exile and former press attache to the Iranian embassy in the United States under the Shah who became president of the Iran Freedom Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland after the Islamic Revolution.
A critic of Ayatollah Khomeini, Tabatabaei was shot in his Bethesda, Maryland home by Dawud Salahuddin, an American Muslim convert.[1]
Salahuddin has stated he was paid $5000 by Iranians to kill Tabatabaei and is currently on the FBI fugitives list. He escaped to Iran via Paris and Geneva, reaching Teheran, Iran, on July 31, 1980.[1] In a 1996 interview with ABC's 20/20, Salahuddin confessed to killing Tabatabaei.[2] He has also stated he thought the killing was "an act of war".[1]