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English Front Cover Iran Human Rights Documentation Center The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) is an independent and nonpartisan scholarly undertaking to establish a comprehensive and objective historical record of the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 revolution. This evolving historical record includes the collection and analysis of a broad range of documents and testimonies in an archive that is accessible to the public for research and educational purposes. Based on the principle that accounting for past abuses is essential for future social progress and democratic transformation, the IHRDC encourages an informed dialogue on the human rights situation in Iran. The IHRDC collaborates with a wide range of scholars and experts in human rights documentation and various other disciplines and projects. IHRDC Mission To investigate and document human rights abuses in Iran; To raise international awareness of human rights violations in Iran and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government to end these abuses; To raise local awareness of human rights violations and international human rights standards inside Iran; To establish an online archive of human rights documents that can one day be used to develop and support a reckoning process in Iran. Iran Human Rights Documentation Center 129 Church Street New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA Tel: +1-(203)-772-2218 Fax: +1-(203)-772-1782 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.iranhrdc.org Photographs: The front cover photograph was taken at a national convention of the commanders of the Law Enforcement Forces on April 27, 2008, and published on the website of Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), available at http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1120833&Lang=P. The picture of Ayatollah Mohammadi Reyshahri is taken from his official website, available at http://www.reyshahri.ir/. The photograph of Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar on the back cover was taken from NAMIR’s official website, available at http://www.namir.info/home/lebenslauf.html. Photographs used throughout the report were obtained from various websites dedicated to the victims of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s assassination campaign. © 2008 All Rights Reserved. Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, New Haven, Connecticut No Safe Haven: Iran’s Global Assassination Campaign Iran Human Rights Documentation Center May 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 3 3. THE LONG ARM OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC........................................................................................5 3.1. GENERAL MODUS OPERANDI.......................................................................................................................... 7 3.2. THE SUPREME LEADER ................................................................................................................................... 7 3.3. SPECIAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE ....................................................................................................................... 8 3.4. MINISTRY OF INTELLIGENCE........................................................................................................................... 9 3.5. THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS.................................................................................................................... 11 The Quds Force.............................................................................................................................................. 13 3.6. LEBANESE HEZBOLLAH ................................................................................................................................14 4. INDIVIDUAL CASES....................................................................................................................................... 15 4.1. SHAHRIAR SHAFIQ ........................................................................................................................................ 16 4.2. ALI AKBAR TABATABAI ............................................................................................................................... 18 4.3. GENERAL GHOLAM ALI OVEISI .................................................................................................................... 23 4.4. DR. ABDOL-RAHMAN GHASSEMLOU ............................................................................................................ 25 4.5. KAZEM RAJAVI............................................................................................................................................. 30 4.6. DR. CYRUS ELAHI......................................................................................................................................... 33 4.8. MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN NAGHDI .................................................................................................................... 47 4.9. DR. REZA MAZLOUMAN ............................................................................................................................... 49 5. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. 53 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................ 55 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................................................... 57 1 1. Preface The 1979 Iranian Revolution was the result of a broad-based opposition movement that encompassed clerics, Islamists, communists, ethnic nationalists and liberal secularists. Although these groups were able to unite around the common goal of deposing Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, they could not agree on the shape the future republic should take and the triumphant coalition gradually fell apart in mutual acrimony. Between 1979 and 1982, a struggle for power raged within Iran in which all sides suffered major casualties. The radical clerics who formed the nucleus of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s support gradually gained the upper hand ruthlessly using organs such as the Revolutionary Guards and local Islamic Komitehs to squelch dissent. Some political parties sought to reach an accommodation with the clerical establishment, others chose direct confrontation; ultimately all were suppressed. From the outset, the radical clerics who made up Ayatollah Khomeini’s inner circle demonstrated an unwavering commitment to exporting their revolution abroad. In support of this objective, the Islamic Republic established the Ministry of Intelligence (Vizarat-i Ittila’t) with a global network of intelligence assets. The Revolutionary Guards established the Quds Force to carry out clandestine military operations overseas. Both organizations would establish a close working relationship with emerging Shi’a terrorist organizations inspired by the success of the Islamic revolution in Iran, most notably Lebanese Hezbollah. The Islamic Republic would use these organizations to track down and eliminate opponents of the regime living outside the country’s borders. It is perhaps only fitting that the first of these operations, the assassination of the Shah’s nephew, Shahriar Shafiq, in Paris in December 1979 should come only a month after the interim government, led by Mehdi Bazargan, had been replaced by the Revolutionary Council, Ayatollah Khomeini’s “government within a government.” With the collapse of the Bazargan government, the clerical establishment immediately began to move against potential centers of opposition both at home and abroad. Iranian intelligence agents have since assassinated more than 162 monarchist, nationalist and democratic expatriate activists in countries as diverse as the United States, Austria, Pakistan, France and Turkey. Inevitably, any investigation of clandestine structures and operations must necessarily be somewhat incomplete. Therefore, this report focuses on nine of the best documented incidents. All of these incidents provide compelling evidence that senior government officials, particularly those within the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, were complicit in these extrajudicial killings, and that these killings comprised a widespread and systematic policy. The report complements an earlier IHRDC publication, Murder at Mykonos: Anatomy of a Political Assassination. Iran’s global assassination campaign was predicated on the simple principle that for opponents of the Islamic Republic there can be no safe haven anywhere in the world. It flourished in contravention of both international and national legal regimes. It is a campaign for which the organizers and perpetrators within the Islamic Republic of Iran must be held accountable. 2 2. Executive Summary Since 1979, high-level officials within the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly those within the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence, have been linked to at least 162 extrajudicial killings of the regime’s political opponents around the globe. These attacks have been carried out on the authority of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and have been planned and coordinated at the
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