Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Ahmad Ali Vahabzadeh

About

Age: 23
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Shi'a)
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: July 28, 1988
Location of Killing: Evin Prison, Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Hanging
Charges: Counter revolutionary offense
Age at time of alleged offense: 16

About this Case

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but he was hanged during this sentence.

News and information about the execution of Mr. Ahmad Ali Vahabzadeh, son of Ahmad (Mojahedin Khalq Organization of Iran*), one of the victims of the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, was sent to Abdorrahman Boroumand Center vi an electronic form by a person close to him (e-form October 24, 2021).

Mr. Vahabzadeh’s name is also listed among the one thousand people whose execution was recorded in a report published by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran (October 24, 2021).  This list has been compiled under the title “Names and descriptions of people who are said to have been executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran from June to December 1988”.  According to this report, although only a thousand people are named in this list, there is a “strong possibility” that the victims actually numbered in the several thousands, and that most of them were members of the Mojahedin e Khalq Orgnization.

The majority of the executed prisoners were members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization. Other victims included members or sympathizers of Marxist-Leninist organizations, such as the Fedaiyan Khalq (Minority) and the Peykar Organization, which opposed the Islamic Republic, as well as the Tudeh Party and the Fedaiyan Khalq (Majority), which did not. Information about the mass executions has been gathered by the Boroumand Foundation from the memoir of Ayatollah Montazeri, reports of human rights organizations, interviews with victims’ families, and witnesses’ memoirs.

According to available information, Mr. Vahabzadeh was born in Tehran. He was single, and he was a ninth-grade student in high school. “After the 1979 revolution, he joined the student branch of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization in the Islamic Student Association of Andisheh High School. He received ideological and organizational training in this organization and he was an active militia in that department.” (Mojahedin e Khalq Organization).  According to his comrades: “He loved the mountains and he spent his weekends in the mountains in the north of Tehran.”

Arrest and detention

Mr. Vahabzadeh was arrested on December 10, 1981, at about 5 pm, at the intersection of Pasdaran and Bustan III streets, by prosecution officers from Evin Prison in Tehran. They took him to Evin Prison. He was only 16 when he was arrested.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Vahabzadeh did not have anything on him. He had left the house in his slippers to get a newspaper. According to the interviewee, he was tortured. After he was hit on the head, he fell into a coma that lasted for two weeks. Dr. Sheikh ol Eslami, who was the Evin Prison’s doctor at the time, was able to bring him out of the coma by extracting some spinal fluid. After that, he was not interrogated anymore (e-form October 24, 2021).

Two weeks after he was arrested, prison officials confirmed that he was in Evin Prison.

According to one of Mr. Vahabzadeh’s cellmates, who had met with his family upon his release from prison, Evin prosecution officers had brought someone in a Mercedes Benz to meet Mr. Vahabzadeh, and he had identified him. He was incarcerated in Evin, Qezel Hesar, and Gohardasht Prisons. Visiting days happened once every two weeks at Evin, Qezel Hesar, and Gohardasht Prisons. During the seven years he spent in prison, he was able to meet with his family two times. Visits were often interrupted (e-form October 24, 2021). In the winter of 1988, he was transferred to Evin Prison for the last time: “In the meeting that he had with his father in the spring of 1988, he had become gaunt and his skin was yellowish, due to extended hunger strikes. But his sunken eyes were bright.”

His father asked him, “Dear Ali, what are you going to do after you are released?”  He said, “We will go to Towchal summit together!”  During these darkest days in the history of Iran, he knew better than anyone that there was not going to be a release. But he spoke about the future with such conviction that he conveyed this faith to other people.” (Mojahedin e Khalq Organization)

Trial

Mr. Vahabzadeh was first put on trial in Evin Prison in the spring of 1982 (there is no date).  No information is available on his trial.

The relatives of political prisoners executed in 1988 refute the legality of the judicial process that resulted in thousands of executions throughout Iran. In their 1988 open letter to then Minister of Justice Dr. Habibi, they argue that the official secrecy surrounding these executions is proof of their illegality. They note that an overwhelming majority of these prisoners had been tried and sentenced to prison terms, which they were either serving or had already completed serving when they were retried and sentenced to death.

Charges

The charges brought against Mr. Vahabzadeh in his first trial are not clear. According to one of his close associates, “Involvement with the Mojahedin was undoubtedly one of his charges.” (Interview)

No charge has been publicly leveled against the defendant. In their letters to the Minister of Justice (1988), and to the UN Special Rapporteur visiting Iran (February 2003), the families of the victims refer to the authorities’ accusations against the prisoners – accusations that may have led to their execution. These accusations include being “counter-revolutionary, anti-religion, and anti-Islam,” as well as being “associated with military action or with various [opposition] groups based near the borders.”

An edict of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, reproduced in the memoirs of Ayatollah Montazeri, his designated successor, corroborates the reported claims regarding the charges against the executed prisoners. In this edict, Ayatollah Khomeini refers to the Mojahedin Khalq Organization’s members as “hypocrites” who do not believe in Islam and “wage war against God” and decrees that prisoners who still approve of the positions taken by this organization are also “waging war against God” and should be sentenced to death.

It is possible that the prisoners who were members of organizations other than the Mojahedin Khalq were charged with being “anti-religious” and were condemned for insisting on their beliefs. 

Evidence of guilt

The report of this execution does not contain information regarding the evidence provided against the defendant.  It is said that the person who identified him bore witness against him. (e-form October 24, 2021)

Defense

At his first trial, Mr. Vahabzadeh denied all charges against him, and he did not have an attorney.  No information is available on Mr. Vahabzadeh’s defense at his subsequent trial.

No information is available about the defendant’s defence. In their open letter, the families of the prisoners note that defendants were not given the opportunity to defend themselves in court. Against the assertion that prisoners were associated with guerrillas operating near the borders, the families submit the isolation of their relatives from the outside during their detention: “Our children lived in most difficult conditions. Visits were limited to 10 minutes behind a glass divider through a telephone every two weeks. We witnessed during the past seven years that they were denied access to anything that would have allowed them to establish contacts outside their prisons walls.” Under such conditions the families reject the claim of the authorities that these prisoners were able to engage with the political groups outside Iran.

Judgment

The court sentenced Mr. Ahmad Ali Vahabzadeh to 15 years in prison. However, he was executed by hanging at Evin Prison, on July 27 or 28, 1988, while he was serving his sentence.  There is no information on his burial site.

According to the existing information, those leftist prisoners who were executed in 1988 were considered apostate (Mortad). Generally, the officials informed the families a few months later when they gave them their belongings. They did not let families have the bodies which were buried in mass graves. Officials warned the families to avoid any mourning ceremonies.

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The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) was founded in 1965. This organization adapted the principles of Islam as its ideological guideline. However, its members’ interpretation of Islam was revolutionary and they believed in armed struggle against the Shah’s regime. They valued Marxism as a progressive method for economic and social analysis but considered Islam as their source of inspiration, culture, and ideology. In the 1970s, the MKO was weakened when many of its members were imprisoned and executed. In 1975, following a deep ideological crisis, the organization refuted Islam as its ideology and, after a few of its members were killed and other Muslim members purged, the organization proclaimed Marxism as its ideology. This move led to split of the Marxist-Leninist Section of the MKO in 1977. In January of 1979, the imprisoned Muslim leaders of the MKO were released along with other political prisoners. They began to re-organize the MKO and recruit new members based on Islamic ideology. After the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the MKO accepted the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and supported the Revolution. Active participation in the political scene and infiltration of governmental institutions were foremost on the organization’s agenda.  During the first two years after the Revolution, the MKO succeeded in recruiting numerous sympathizers, especially in high schools and universities; but its efforts to gain political power, either by appointment or election, were strongly opposed by the Islamic Republic leaders. 
The exclusion of MKO members from government offices and the closure of their centers and publishing houses, in conjunction with to the Islamic Republic authorities’ different interpretation of Islam, widened the gap between the two. Authorities of the new regime referred to the Mojahedin as “Hypocrites” and the Hezbollahi supporters of the regime attacked the Mojahedin sympathizers regularly during demonstrations and while distributing publications, leading to the death of several MKO supporters. On June 20, 1981, the MKO called for a demonstration protesting their treatment by governmental officials and the government officials’  efforts to impeach their ally, President Abolhassan Banisadr. Despite the fact that the authorities called this demonstration illegal, thousands came to the streets, some of whom confronted the Revolutionary Guardsmen and Hezbollahis. The number of casualties that resulted from this demonstration is unknown but a large number of demonstrators were arrested and executed in the following days and weeks. The day after the demonstration, the Islamic Republic regime started a repressive campaign – unprecedented in modern Iranian history. Thousands of MKO members and sympathizers were arrested or executed. On June 21, 1981, the MKO announced an armed struggle against the Islamic Republic and assassinated a number of high-ranking officials and supporters of the Islamic regime. 
In the summer of 1981, the leader of the MKO and the impeached President (Banisadr) fled Iran to reside in France, where they founded the National Council of Resistance. After the MKO leaders and many of its members were expelled from France, they went to Iraq and founded the National Liberation Army of Iran in 1987, which entered Iranian territory a few times during the Iran-Iraq war. They were defeated in July 1988 during their last operation, the Forugh Javidan Operation. A few days after this operation, thousands of imprisoned Mojahedin supporters were killed during the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. Ever since the summer of 1981, the MKO has continued its activities outside of Iran. No information is available regarding members and activities of the MKO inside the country. 
In spite of the “armed struggle” announcement by the MKO on June 20, 1981, many sympathizers of the organization had no military training, were not armed, and did not participate in armed conflict.

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