Kazem Sami
| Kazem Sami | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Health of Iran | |
| In office 4 February 1979 – 2 November 1979 | |
| Prime Minister | Mehdi Bazargan |
| Preceded by | Manouchehr Razmara |
| Succeeded by | Mousa Zargar |
| Member of Parliament of Iran | |
| In office 1980–1984 | |
| Constituency | Tehran |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1935 Mashhad, Iran |
| Died | 23 November 1988 (aged: 53) Tehran, Iran |
| Political party | Freedom Movement of Iran |
| Alma mater | Ferdowsi University of Mashhad University of Tehran |
| Religion | Shia Islam |
Dr. Kazem Sami Kermani was Iran's minister of health in the transitional government of Mehdi Bazargan and leader of the Iranian Nation Liberation Movement (JAMA), an offshoot of Freedom Movement of Iran, a liberal religious-nationalist movement affiliated with National Front of Iran.
Political career
Dr. Kazem Sami was one of the leaders and organizers of the Iranian revolution. He served as the minister of health in the Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first minister of health after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He ran in the first Iranian presidential elections, but lost to Abolhassan Banisadr, coming sixth out of the seven presidential candidates. He served as a deputy in the first post-revolutionary Iranian Parliament. After distancing himself from the revolutionary government, Dr Sami remained one of the few active opposition leaders in Iran, openly criticizing the Islamic Republic government. He also wrote a famous open letter to Ayatollah Khomeini, criticizing him for the continuation of the Iran-Iraq war after Iran had recovered her occupied territories, notably the liberation of Khorramshahr.
Murder
Dr. Sami was murdered in his private medical clinic in 1988, under suspicious circumstances. He is believed to be one of the first victims of the "Chain murders",[1] a series of murders and disappearances of Iranian dissident intellectuals in the 1990s.