Information regarding the extrajudicial execution of Major Moradi Talebi was sent to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center electronically and via email, by one of his relatives (March 19, 2006). News of this extra judicial execution was also published in the following websites: Fars News Agency (March 12, 2016), Mehr News Agency (October 25, 2021), WarIsBoring: in two parts (August 29 and September 5, 2017), Skyhunter (December 5, 2012), Sharq News (March 9, 2021), and in an interview with pilot Brigadier General Shahram Rostami (October 19, 2017). A small section of Mr. Moradi Talebi’s interview was published on YouTube.

Mr. Moradi Talebi was married and he had three children (one of his children was born after his death). He had studied in the United States and he was a major in the Iranian Air Force. Mr. Moradi Talebi’s wife was also an officer in the Air Force; it is said that she retired after the revolution. One of Mr. Moradi Talebi’s co-workers said, “Ahmad Moradi was one of our old friends and he was a good pilot.” (Mehr News Agency)

According to information we have received, Mr. Moradi Talebi was in line with the Islamic revolution when it happened. After two years he decided that this revolution would not bring about democracy, and he became opposed to the Islamic Republic. He wanted to leave the armed forces, but regulations would not permit him to do this. Therefore, he decided to escape in order to go and live in America (Email from Mr. Moradi Talebi’s relative).

According to a former Air Force commander, when interviewed about Mr. Moradi, he said that he did not come to work on time during the days of the revolution and the marches; according to him, he had been participating in the marches, and this was an unacceptable and intolerable thing to do in the military. (Interview with Shahram Rostami, former Air Force commander)

According to one of his coworkers, one time when Mr. Moradi Talebi and his wife were going to Varamin, they were stopped at a Committee Guards checkpoint. They were asked to open their suitcase and when they refused, he was beaten and assaulted by several agents of the Committee (Mehr News Agency). After this incident, in the spring of 1986, he asked for vacation time and went to Germany with his family. His family stayed in Germany and he returned to Iran.

According to available information, at 2 pm on September 2, 1986, Mr. Moradi Talebi and his copilot Hasan Najafi received orders to provide security for oil tankers carrying crude oil from Khark Island with an F14. He continued to patrol the skies after the first refueling, but after the airplane gained altitude he proceeded to fly towards Iraq.

According to Tom Cooper’s interview with Ahmad Seddiq, an officer in the Iraqi Air Force Intelligence Service, after many years of war with Iran, Iraqi forces decided on a new tactic in dealing with the Islamic Republic Air Force. The Iranian F14s were very powerful opponents in the sky, and they had incurred much damage with the Phoenix Missiles carried by these jets. The Iraqis decided to contact the pilots of the Iranian Air Forces and convince them to flee Iran. Starting in 1984, the Iraqis established telephone contact with Iranian pilots. In this regard, Ahmad Seddiq says: “We talked to Iranian pilots in English from Istanbul, Turkiye. We were able to find several pilots. Some of them expressed a desire to escape from Iran – but they wanted to go to the West, not to Iraq.” (WarIsBoring, August 29, 2017). The Iraqis continued their efforts and eventually contacted Mr. Moradi Talebi, F14 pilot based in Esfahan Air Force Base. He was in contact with the Iraqi Armed Forces Intelligence Agency for quite some time without alerting the Iranian counterintelligence agents. Mr. Moradi was scheduled to flee Iran on September 3, 1986. However, he was assigned and proceeded to fly a military air patrol to protect Iranian oil tankers near Bushihr, one day earlier. He therefore used this opportunity to carry out his plan. When their jet fighter entered Iraqi air space, they were attacked by the Iraqi Air Force, who know nothing about this escape plan. They fired and hit the jet fighter. The two pilots were able to eject and land safely with parachutes. (Al Alam Network) 

That same afternoon, news was broadcast about an Islamic Republic Air Force F14 having been fired on and crashed near Nowmaniyeh in Iraq. That evening, the pilot (Mr. Moradi Talebi) and copilot/radar operator (Hasan Najafi) of this plane appeared on Iraqi National TV. The co-pilot was against defecting and seeking asylum. He stayed in Iraq as a prisoner of war and returned to Iran in September 1990. Mr. Moradi Talebi’s coworkers believe he escaped to Iraq because of the assault and battery he was subjected to by the agents of the Committee and because of the lack of adequate welfare amenities.

In an interview in Iraq, Mr. Moradi Talebi said: “Khomeini, is interested in prolonging the war for his own survival and for more control over the people of Iran. Every once in a while, he talks about a decisive and final offensive. This is misleading. The people of Iran should know that there is never going to be a decisive and final offensive.” (A small section of this interview is on YouTube)

Mr. Moradi Talebi went from Iraq to Europe in January 1987. He joined his wife and his children, aged seven and eight. In Geneva, they applied for political asylum. (Kayhan Hava’i)

Background of the Iran-Iraq War and popular discontent 

The 8-year long Iran-Iraq war had roots in a number of historical territorial and political disputes including over the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab, a river that was the border between the two countries, dating back to the 1930s. The two countries had attempted to settle the border dispute through a treaty in 1937, from which Iran withdrew in 1967, and an agreement in 1975, which Iraq reneged on in 1980 shortly before its September 1980 offensive against Iran. Two months into the war, and after capturing the city of Khorramshahr, Iraq’s army had bogged down into Iran’s territory. By mid-1982, Iran had recaptured most of its territory and carried out offensives inside Iraq. 

In July 1982, The UN Security Council approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease fire between Iran and Iraq. The withdrawal of forces to their own borders, but Iran rejected the resolution. Iranian leaders stressed in various statements that the withdrawal did not satisfy Iran's conditions for an end to the war. [NYT, 6/30 and 7/14] For Iran’s decision makers, the fall of Saddam and compensation were the preconditions for peace. (Washington Post, February 21, 1983; FBIS April 24, 1985) The stalemate in the war inflicted a heavy cost, in particular on civilians as Iraqi and Iranian planes bombed population centers and targeted the oil industrial complexes in both countries, Iraq used chemical weapons against the Iranian army and its own Kurdish population and Iran sacrificed thousands, mainly young boys, on minefields in Iran. (NYT, March 14, 1985)  By 1986, the high human cost of the war, the shelling of the cities, and the displacement of the most at risk populations had weakened significantly popular support for the war. Critical statements and protests in April and May 1985 as well as defections, including of pilots, were reported by the media. (FBIS April 25, 1985; Washington Post, May 18, 1985)*

Background of Extrajudicial Killings by the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of politically motivated violence in Iran and around the world. Since the 1979 Revolution, Islamic Republic operatives inside and outside the country have engaged in kidnapping, disappearing, and killing a large number of individuals whose activities they deemed undesirable. The actual number of the victims of extrajudicial killings inside Iran is not clear; however, these murders began in February 1979 and have continued since then, both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has so far identified over 540 killings outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Dissidents have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic outside Iran in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, India, and Pakistan in Asia; Dubai, Iraq, and Turkey in the Middle East; Cyprus, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain in Europe; and the United States across the Atlantic Ocean. In most cases, there has not been much published, and local authorities have not issued arrest warrants. But documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm the theory of state committed crimes. In some instances, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion or arrest of Iranian diplomats. In a few cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial. The evidence presented revealed the defendants’ connection to Iran’s government institutions, and an arrest warrant has been issued for Iran’s Minister of Information.

The manner in which these killings were organized and implemented in Iran and abroad is indicative of a single pattern which, according to Roland Chatelin, the Swiss prosecutor, contains common parameters and detailed planning. It can be ascertained from the similarities between these murders in different countries that the Iranian government is the principal entity that ordered the implementation of these crimes. Iranian authorities have not officially accepted responsibility for these murders and have even attributed their commission to internal strife in opposition groups. Nevertheless, since the very inception of the Islamic Republic regime, the Islamic Republic officials have justified these crimes from an ideological and legal standpoint. In the spring of 1979, Sadeq Khalkhali, the first Chief Shari’a Judge of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, officially announced the regime’s decision to implement extrajudicial executions and justified the decision: “ … These people have been sentenced to death; from the Iranian people’s perspective, if someone wants to assassinate these individuals abroad, in any country, no government has any right to bring the perpetrator to trial as a terrorist, because such a person is the implementing agent of the sentence issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Therefore, they are Mahduroddam and their sentence is death regardless of where they are.” More than 10 years after these proclamations, in a speech about the security forces’ success, Ali Fallahian, the regime’s Minister of Information, stated the following regarding the elimination of members of the opposition: “ … We have had success in inflicting damage to many of these little groups outside the country and on our borders.”

At the same time, various political, judicial, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have, at different times and occasions, confirmed the existence of a long term government policy for these extrajudicial killings and in some cases their implementation. 

Read more about the background of extrajudicial killings in the Islamic Republic of Iran by clicking on the left hand highlight with the same title.

Mr. Moradi Talebi’s Extrajudicial Killing

According to available information, Mr. Moradi Talebi and his pregnant wife had gone for a walk on the evening of Monday August 10, 1987. At 9 pm, when they returned to their place of residence, Hotel Edelweiss at 41 Phillippe-Plantamour street in the Paquis area in Geneva, they were attacked by two unknown persons. One of these pushed his wife aside and the other one killed Mr. Moradi Talebi in full view of his wife, shooting him three times in the head and twice in the chest with a “Walther PPK” weapon, made in Germany, and equipped with a silencer. After the shooting, the assailants, who had followed Mr. Moradi Talebi and his wife, quickly fled the scene in a car. They left a light blue baseball cap at the scene of the assassination. 

Prior to this event, Mr. Moradi Talebi had had a feeling that something dangerous was about to happen, and he had talked about this with the officials handling his asylum proceedings in Geneva. These officials had advised him to change his place of residence as soon as possible.

Iranian Officials’ Reaction

Official media in Iran published the news of Mr. Moradi Talebi’s killing. One article talked about his “execution”.

Skyhunter website publishes all the latest military news, articles, books and documents from Iran and all the world. They said this about the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Moradi Talebi: “Let this be a lesson for all the traitors who betray their people and defect to the enemy.”

However, an air force commander responded to the question of a reporter who called Mr. Moradi Talebi a traitor and stated that there is no record of an Iraqi pilot during the Iran-Iraq war bringing an airplane to Iran and said: “No, there is no record. This is our own self-created predicament. As a matter of fact, you need to connect this state of affairs to the situation that all our elite is leaving. All of them certainly love their country.” Afterwards, when the interviewer says elites did not become traitors, he says, “well, yes, that is the difference. But you have to investigate him, how did he come to do this, he definitely had problems in his life. There has to be a system that looks out for and takes care of people’s problems, especially for people holding sensitive positions whether in the regular military or the IRGC.” (Interview with Shahram Rostami, former air force commander) 

This interview was published in Sharq News Website, with this explanation: “It should be mentioned that all of the pilots who attempted to steal jet fighters were killed. None of them were able to get away…”

Swiss Officials’ Reaction

At the crime scene, Swiss police found six 7.68 shells from a military gun, and ten yards away, they found the murder weapon, a ‘Walther PPK’ with a silencer attached. Police constructed a portrait of the perpetrator with the help of witnesses. The murderer was about 30 years old, 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a medium build. He was wearing a dark hat and sunglasses. His companion was about 5 feet 7 inches tall and heavy. He was wearing a blue sweater. Both were clean shaven.

Swiss police actively pursued two men “from one of the Persian Gulf States” but were not able to find any sign of the murderers and no one was arrested. According to Swiss laws, the murder case of Mr. Moradi Talebi is still open.

Family’s Reaction

There is no information on the reaction of Mr. Moradi Talebi's family.

Impacts on Family

There is no information on the impact of the extra judicial killing of Mr. Moradi Talebi on his family.

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*1982

July: Iranian troops attacked Basra; Iranian forces entered Iraq and Iraq launched a counteroffensive; fighting took place around Qasr-i Shirin, opening up a new northern front; Iraqi planes attacked Hamadan, inflicting casualties; heavy fighting occurred around Basra; Iraqi jets attacked the towns of Ilam and Khurramabad; Iranian planes bombed Baghdad, and Iraqi planes attacked Ahwaz and Dizful in retaliation. [NYT, FBIS, WP] 

October: Iraqi forces launched a major offensive in the Mandali region, inflicting heavy casualties; Iraqi jets attacked Dizful, inflicting heavy casualties. [NYT, FBIS, WP] 

December: Iraq destroyed Iranian naval targets in the Gulf; Iraqi missiles attacked Dizful, inflicting serious casualties; Iran shelled Basra; the Iraqi forces carried out scores of bombing missions in Khuzistan; heavy fighting occurred on the southern front.  [NYT, FBIS] 

1983

Feb. 10: Iran's President 'Ali Khaman'i said the "punishment of the leaders of the Iraqi regime" was the main goal of the war. Iraq's withdrawal from Iran's territory was no longer a condition for peace, he said, because Iran had recaptured most of the land it lost. [2/21 WP] 

1985

January 19: UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said a UN inspection team had found evidence that Iraqi planes bombed several civilian areas in Iran in January. [1/19 WP]

February: Iran and Iraq accused one another of shelling cities and other civilian areas; Apr. 20: A joint statement broadcast by clandestine Radio of the Iranian Toilers, the opposition Tudeh party and the Feda'iyan-i Khalq said recent demonstrations in Tehran protesting the Iran-Iraq war had been brutally crushed by regime authorities. [4/24 FBIS] 

March 13: Iran accused Iraq of using chemical weapons, and UN experts confirmed that Iranian soldiers had been affected by mustard gas and a nerve agent called tabun. [3/14 NYT] 

March 27: Iran said its demands for ending the war were the elimination of the Iraqi regime, $350 billion in war reparations, and the return of 200,000 Iraqi "refugees" to Iraq. [3/28 FBIS]

September: Iraqi planes continued to attack Kharg and naval targets near-by; foreign tankers continued to be attacked in the Gulf; Iranian planes bombed the ‘Ayn Zalah oil installation; Iranian planes raided Iraqi targets around Basra; Iraqi planes destroyed power stations at the Dizah and Rizasha dams; Iranian planes bombed power installations at the Dukan dam; Iranian artillery destroyed an Iraqi radar site at al-Faw; fighting occurred on the western and northern fronts. [FBIS, NYT]

October: Iraqi planes bombed Kharg and naval targets in the Gulf; Iraqi and Iranian planes attacked foreign tankers in the Gulf; Iranian forces launched an offensive in the Sumar area; Iraq attacked the Bahnegan, Cyrus, and Ardeshir oil fileds and the Khvor Malih monitoring station; Iranian planes attacked al-Halfaya and Darband oil installations. [FBIS, WP]

Apr. 25: The West German press agency reported that about 1000 people had been detained in Iran after they participated in peaceful demonstrations against the Iran-Iraq war. [4/25 FBIS] 

Motorists created a huge traffic jam in Tehran to demonstrate against the government and the war with Iraq, in answer to an appeal from Paris by exiled former premier Shahpur Bakhtiar. [5/18 WP]

May 18: The Washington Post reported that Iranian leaders were split over whether the fall of Saddam should be a precondition for ending the war. Speaker 'Ali Akbar Hashimi Rafsanjani and Foreign Minister' Ali Akbar Vilayati were reportedly in favor of ending the war without insisting on it, while President Khaman'i and Prime Minister Mir Husuyn Musavi held that his ouster was necessary. [5/18 WP]

June: Iranian and Iraqi planes raided each other’s capitals; Iraqi planes raided navel targets near Kharg and the island’s oil terminal; Iraqi planes attacked the Bandar Khumayni petrochemical complex; Iranian artillery raided Basra; Iraqi planes raided Tabriz, Isfahan, and Hamid; a huge explosion shook Baghdad; Iraqi planes attacked Ilam and Paveh, Kurdistan; Iranian and Iraqi planes shelled border towns; tankers continued to be hit in the Gulf; Iran reported heavy fighting in its southern region and in the central sector. [NYT, WP, AN]