Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, Judge at the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal, on "Corruptors on Earth"
I began to try the convicts soon after my nomination. The first people I tried and punished for their deeds were Ne'matollah Nasiri, head of SAVAK, and Khosrodad, Head of Paratroopers, Naji, Martial Law Administrator of Esfahan, and Rahimi, martial Law administrator of Tehran and Head of Police Force. These four people were executed on February 13, 1979[1] at night in the Refah School and I sentenced them to death. That night, I had condemned 24 people but because of interferences, I only ordered the execution of the above mentioned four. These were our first executions. Of course, with my persistent efforts, I finally was able to progressively execute right there those 24 people. Salar Jaf was also among them... All the people who were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunals were the best examples of "corruptor on earth" and they were executed as such.
A Corruptor on earth is a person who contributes to spreading and expanding corruption on earth. Corruption is what leads to the decline, destruction and the deviation of society from its nature. People who were executed had strived in spreading corruption and prostitution, circulating heroin, opium and licentious behavior, atheism, murder, betrayal, flattery, and, in sum, all these vile qualities. These people's problems were aggravated by the fact that they did not repent once they saw the people's revolution.
I believed at the time, and I still believe, that all the parliamentarians and senators, all governors, heads of SAVAK and Police, who after 1963, and the Imam boycott, held office are all sentenced to death. High ranking Ministries' officials who were instrumental in the survival of the apparatus [Shah's regime] and who, for getting close to the Shah and his family would accept any humiliation, are all convicted (condemned).
To sum it up, all the people that I condemned and who were executed in the early days of the establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunals and later in the Qasr prison were all corruptor on earth and based on the Qu'ran judgment their blood was a waste? They all belonged to the thousand families or were freemasons or traitors [Iran forush] or people who destroyed society. Based on the judgment of the Qu'ran, it was impossible to exonerate them.
Some of the people who were executed were:
1-Hoveida, Nasiri, Rabii, Khosrowdad, Lt General Pakravan, General Naji, General Rahimi, Salar Jaf, General Berenjian, General Beid Abadi, The Tabriz martial law administrator.[2]
[1] The author is incorrect for the date of execution. The four mentioned people were executed on February 15th, 1979.
[2] Sadeq Khalkhali, Memoirs of Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, 2001, Nashr-e Sayeh, Vol. 1, p. 352.