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

Safdar Azadmehr

About

Age: 30
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: October, 1988
Location of Killing: Evin Prison, Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Counter revolutionary opinion and/or speech; War on God, God's Prophet and the deputy of the Twelfth Imam

About this Case

The information about Mr. Safdar Azadmehr has been sent to Omid via an electronic form by a person familiar with this case. Mr. Azadmehr is also among 3208 members and sympathizers of the Mojahedin Khlaq Organization whose execution was reported by the organization in a book entitled Crime Against Humanity. He is one of the victims of the 1988-89 mass executions of political prisoners whose name is published in a November 2, 1989 Report of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, on the “Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” prepared by Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl (El Salvador), Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights. Executed prisoners were mostly members or sympathizers of the Mojahedin Khlaq Organization, or other Marxist Leninist organizations such as, the Fadaiyan Khlaq Organization, the Tudeh Party, and the Peykar Organization.

Mr. Safdar Azadmenr, son of Ahmad and born in Kermanshah, began his political activities, in affiliation with the Mojahedin Khalq Organization, when he was student at Sari University. The sender of the electronic form remembers him as someone who always wanted to help others.

Arrest and detention

Mr. Azadmehr was arrested in October 1981 and transferred to Evin prison. Until a few months before his execution, he had contacts with his family members. No further information is available regarding his arrest and detention.

Trial

Mr. Azadmehr was tried and condemned to life imprisonment. Specific details on the circumstances of the trials that led to the execution of Mr. Azadmehr and thousands of other individuals in 1988 are not known. According to existing information, there was no official trial with the presence of an attorney and prosecutor. Those who were executed in 1988 were sent to a three-man committee consisting of a religious judge, a representative from the Intelligence Ministry, and a Public Prosecutor of Tehran.

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

At his first trial, Mr. Azadmehr was charged with sympathizing with the Mojahedin Khalq Organization. No charge has been publicly leveled against the victims of the 1988 mass executions. 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, Ayatollah Khomeini, 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 members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization 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.

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. Azadmehr’s defense. In their open letter, the families of the prisoners noted that defendants were not given the opportunity to defend themselves in court. The same letter, rebutting the accusation that these prisoners (from inside the prison) had collaborated with armed members of the Mojahedin Organization in clashes with armed forces of the Islamic Republic, states that such claims “are false considering the circumstances in prisons; for our children faced most difficult conditions [in prison, with] visitation rights of once every 15 days, each visitation lasting ten minutes through a telephone from behind the glass window, and were deprived of any connection with the outside world. We faced such conditions for seven years, which proves the truth of our claim.”

Judgment

According to the sender of the electronic form, Mr. Safdar Azadmehr was shot by firing squad in October 1988 at Evin prison. According to available information, months after the executions, prison authorities informed the families about the executions and handed in the victims’ belongings to their families. The bodies, however, were not returned to them. The bodies were buried in mass graves. Authorities warned the families of prisoners against holding memorial ceremonies.

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