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

Ali Reza Sa'adat Niaki

About

Nationality: Iran
Religion: Non-Believer
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: September 16, 1981
Location of Killing: Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting

About this Case

News of the execution of Mr. Ali Reza Sa’adat Niaki, son of Mohammad Reza, along with eighteen others, was published in the Kayhan newspaper on September 19, 1981. The Public Relations Department of the Central Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an announcement concerning these executions, the defendants' names, and their charges, and released it to the Pars news agency.

News of the execution of Mr. Sa’adat Niaki was published in the Peykar publication, number 125, on November 2, 1981. According to this report, he was born to a middle-class family in Amol in 1952. He entered the Medical School of Tehran University in 1971. He began his political activities with the Marxist faction of the Mojahedin Khalq in 1976 and continued with the Peykar Organization after it was established. After the revolution, he was in charge of the Shomal Committee of Peykar. He was assigned to work as a doctor in Kordestan from 1979. He returned to Tehran in 1981.

Additional information was sent by a relative of the defendant through an electronic form to the Omid site. According to this form, Mr. Sa’adat Niaki was born to a middle-class family in Amol in 1953. He was an intern in Tehran University and worked as a doctor in Kordestan. He was a sympathizer of the Peykar Organization. He had three brothers and one sister. His brother, Mehran was killed in the Chalus prison when tortured on December 2, 1981.

Mr. Sa’adat Niaki is one of the 430 individuals whose names appear on the list of “Martyrs of the Peykar Organization for the Liberation of the Working Class” published on the website of Andeesheh va Peykar. This list contains the names of those members of the organization who died after the revolution of 1979. More than 400 of the individuals on this list have been executed.

Mr. Alireza Sa’adat Niaki is one of the 12,028 individuals listed in an addendum to the Mojahed magazine (No 261), published by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization on September 6, 1985. The list includes individuals, affiliated with various opposition groups, who were executed or killed during clashes with the Islamic Republic security forces from June 1981 to the publication date of the magazine.

The Peykar Organization for the Liberation of the Working Class was founded by a number of dissident members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization who had converted to Marxism-Leninism. Peykar was also joined by a number of political organizations, known as Khat-e Se (Third line). The founding tenets of Peykar included the rejection of guerrilla struggle and a strong stand against the pro-Soviet policies of the Iranian Tudeh Party. Peykar viewed the Soviet Union as a "Social imperialist" state, believed that China had deviated from the Marxist-Leninist principles, and radically opposed all factions of the Islamic regime of Iran. The brutal repression of dissidents by the Iranian government and splits within Peykar in 1981 and 1982 effectively dismantled the Organization and scattered its supporters. By the mid-1980s, Peykar was no longer in existence.

Arrest and detention

According to the Peykar publication, Mr. Sa’adat Niaki, along with three other sympathizers of Peykar, was arrested in a comrade’s house in Tehran during an attack by the regime’s agents in 1981. According to the electronic form, however, Mr. Sa’adat Niaki was arrested in Mashhad and detained in the Evin prison, Section 209, and the Qezelhesar prison. The circumstances of this defendant’s arrest and detention are not known.

Trial

No information is available on the defendant’s trial.

Charges

The charges against Mr. Alireza Sa’adat Niaki were announced as, "being an active member of the anti-people organization of Peykar, being in charge of logistics and connections for the Kordestan Committee of the Organization, and being in charge of propaganda in Amol and Babol for the Organization.” According to the electronic form, the charge against Mr. Alireza Sa’adat Niaki was “atheist propaganda in Amol and Babol.”

The validity of the criminal charges brought against this defendant cannot be ascertained in the absence of the basic guarantees of a fair trial.

Evidence of guilt

The report of this execution does not contain information regarding the evidence provided against the defendant.

Defense

No information is available on Mr. Sa’adat Niaki's defense.

Judgment

َThe Central Islamic Revolutionary Court identified Mr. Sa’adat Niaki as, "Mohareb (fighter) against God and the Prophet and Mofsed(corruptor on Earth)." He was condemned to death. The ruling was carried out and he was executed in the Evin prison yard in Tehran in September of 1981. According to the electronic form, Mr. Alireza Sa’adat Niaki was executed by firing squad in the Evin prison yard on September 16, 1981.

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