For Abdorrahman Borumand, Democracy meant “the rule of the majority, while all political and social rights of the minority are respected so that the minority gets the opportunity to become the majority.”

Information regarding the life and death of Dr. Abdorrahman Borumand (Boroumand) was taken from interviews of Abdorrahman Borumand Center for Human Rights (ABC) with his daughters Ladan (December 2, 2005) and Roya (March 30, 2024), and a March 6, 1984, interview with Abdorrahman Borumand in France by the Harvard Oral History Project, and an interview of Ladan Borumand with Asoo, November 29, 2018. Additional information was drawn from his case’s investigation in France, the investigation of the assassinations known as the “Chain Murders,” in Freedom Vatan Blogspot (2009,) the official weekly of the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance in Paris, Ghiame-Iran, June 10, 1991, Kayhan daily, April 23, 1991, Jomhuri Eslami daily, September 18, 1991, Le Monde daily June 22, 1991, and ABC’s research and April 18, 2016 Newsletter: “Remembering One Anniversary and Celebrating Another: Twenty-five Years Ago, a Man Was Assassinated in Paris, but His Cause Lives On.”.

Dr. Abdorrahman Borumand, son of Mohammad Khan, was married and had four children. He was born into a farmer/landowner family from Esfahan in 1927. After completing his high school education in Esfahan, he studied law at the University of Tehran and graduated in 1948. He began his military service the same year. He served in the Military Academy and the judiciary, in Esfahan. After the end of his service (March 1950), he left for Switzerland where he obtained his Ph.D from the University of Geneva in 1956. (Harvard Interview- ABC interview with Ladan Borumand)

He returned to Iran and settled down in his home town Esfahan. He practiced law until the 1979 revolution. In the early 1970s he and his brothers entered into an agreement with a developer and began a big housing project on parts of their land near Esfahan. Dr. Borumand’s condition for agreeing to this project was to include affordable housing for low income families. Out of the first 5000 units built before the revolution in this new development (Shahin shahr), ended the project, 2000 units allowed families to be homeowners for the first time.(Harvard interview) 

Political Career 

Dr. Borumand began his political activism in University. He explained in an interview years later, that though the occupation of Iran by the allies during World War II had been a blow to Iranians’ morale, it also led to a political opening that outlasted the occupation and brought excitement and hope to them. In Switzerland, he and other supporters of Prime Minister Mossadegh (1951-1953) spent most of their time undoing ؛the poisonous attacks of the Tudeh Party supporters who accused Mossadegh to be “England’s servant” and associated with imperialism. The statement he wrote on behalf of his fellow students’ against the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 led to an Embassy complaint against him to Swiss authorities for “insulting the Head of the state.” In response, Dr. Borumand stressed that “insults are used by people who have nothing worthy to say.” (Harvard Project interview)

Dr. Borumand returned to Iran in July 1956 at a time when many Mossadegh supporters were in prison or inactive. His first political contact was Dr. Chapour Bakhtiar whom he reached out to through family connections. He never joined any political party but was a member of the National Front, Mossadgh’s coalition. In 1960, signals of a political opening, encouraged the National Front to present candidates to the parliament. Dr. Borumand ran in Esfahan in August, but  the political police arrested him on the second day of the election and sent him to Qezel Qal’eh Prison in Tehran for a few days before releasing him (Harvard Oral History). However, new elections were held in January 1961, after all the elected candidates resigned and the political police (SAVAK) was apparently instructed not to intervene. (US Consulate Esfahan, 1961 Report)

Dr. Borumand ran again, despite the limitations imposed by the city officials including preventing the National Front candidates to use the location of their choice for their campaign headquarter or stopping the sound-truck that dispensed their slogans after it circulated in Esfahan for a day. The US consulate reported that the authorities rejected the candidates' demands that all the ballot boxes be sealed in the presence of their representatives and ballots be read in the latter’s presence. It also noted that the candidates campaign grew rapidly to draw up to 2000 people from different classes every night. Groups of students, farmers, factory workers, and intellectuals attended at different nights, as per the candidates demands. 

During the first day of the election, January 26, 1961, it was reported that the political police had prevented the workers from leaving the factories. But the second day of the election was a Friday, a holiday, and large crowds at the polling stations. The protests of the National Front candidates in the face of uncovered electoral fraud such as adding a stuffed ballot box or bringing voters from another locality to vote in Esfahan at multiple polling places were ignored, as were their protest telegrams to the Shah and the Interior Minister. Speaking to thousands of people gathered to protest against electoral fraud, the candidates called for the boycott of the election. The call for the boycott led to a significant drop in the participation on January 28. The election results, in which the government-favored candidates had significantly more votes than the National Front candidates, were announced in the morning by the daily Ettelaat of January 29, before the vote counting had started. (US Consulate Esfahan, 1961 Report) 

Dr. Borumand was arrested after his speech on January 28 and imprisoned for three months in Tehran after which he was banned from living in Esfahan. He settled down in Tehran where he was put in charge of provincial affairs by the National Front. Borumand remained involved with the pro-democracy movement and was elected to the Council of the National Front in 1963. The closed political space of the 1960s and 1970s, however, left no opportunity for peaceful opposition political activism. Borumand limited his activities to maintaining a network of support for political friends who found themselves in difficulty and supported activities such as publishing of exiled supporters of Mossadeq. In 1976, a limited political opening encouraged the pro-democracy movement to resume some activities.(Harvard Project interview)

The 1979 Revolution

The 1979 revolution was a major turning point in Borumand's political life. Dr. Borumand traveled to Paris to meet with the Ayatollah in the weeks preceding the fall of the monarchy. Upon his return, he tried to warn, without success, the National Front against supporting the ayatollah, whom he believed was opposed to a multiparty political system and democracy. He was one of the few high-ranking National Front members who supported Dr. Bakhtiar's decision to accept the premiership of Iran in January 1979. Bakhtiar, a social democrat and one of the three leaders of the National Front, was determined to prevent a clerical rule in Iran and ensure a peaceful transition to democracy.  When the National Front Council expelled Bakhtiar, Borumand resigned in protest and became a close advisor to Bakhtiar. 

In January 1979, Borumand was sent to Paris to arrange a meeting between Bakhtiar and Khomeini. The meeting with the Ayatollah never took place, and Bakhtiar's government fell on February 11, 1979, after the Iranian army declared its neutrality. Considering the violence unleashed by the new revolutionary leaders, he was granted political asylum in France. Eventually, the revolutionary authorities confiscated his home and his properties. (Harvard Project interview- ABC research)   

After the arrival of Dr. Bakhtiar to Paris, In August 1979, Dr. Borumand joined forces with him to found in August 1980, the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance (NAMIR), the first pro-democracy opposition movement to Iran's theocracy.* Borumand played an active role in NAMIR’s activities and growth. He also raised funds and contributed to the movement financially. As one of Bakhtiar’s most trusted political allies and friends, he managed the organization’s finances and established a network of supporters among diverse groups and tribes inside and outside Iran. 

Mr. Borumand described the political regime he was fighting for in the following terms: "NAMIR aims at restoring national sovereignty in Iran. National sovereignty means that people would enjoy democracy in domestic affairs and independence in international affairs. By democracy I mean the rule of the majority, while all political and social rights of the minority are respected so that the minority gets the opportunity to become the majority. This is not a new goal. This was also the ideal of all the patriots and freedom lovers in our country since the constitutional revolution of 1906."

In the years 1990-1991, France and Iran were in negotiation to settle the Eurodif dispute. Before the 1979 revolution, France had received one billion dollars in loans to build a uranium enrichment plant, but the Islamic Republic withdrew from the agreement. The French government had increased  pressure on the NAMIR to diminish its activities. The pressure was such that Shapur Bakhtiar was considering leaving France (Le Monde August 10, 1991; Radio Farda interview with Ladan Borumand). 

Dr. Borumand did not expect significant international support for the Iranian opposition. He believed that only an alliance between pro-democracy forces from the left to the right of the Iranian political spectrum would have a chance to succeed. In the last months of his life, as the president of NAMIR’s Executive Committee, he was actively working to rally figures of diverse political leniency to create a strong political coalition. In his last interview (published after his death) he stressed: 

“In the end, if we, liberal nationalists, who are all passionate about freedom, unite and pursue our relentless struggle hand in hand, it is natural that we will gain the support of all free thinkers around the world and achieve results sooner. Otherwise, no force in the West or the East will act on our behalf, and inevitably, though they will not support the current regime, they will continue their normal relations with it until the damages caused by the nature of the regime both topple the regime and unfortunately break the back of the Iranian nation." (Ghiame Iran)

Dr. Borumand loved history and enjoyed Persian classical literature and poetry. People close to him remember him as a charismatic and powerful speaker. He also valued family and friendship and was known for his generosity and loyalty. He was humble and rarely talked about himself. He loved Iran and believed that every citizen has a duty to be involved in the affairs of his country. (Ladan Borumand Interview. Aasoo) 

The National Movement of the Iranian Resistance

On August 5, 1980, Shapour Bakhtiar founded the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance (NAMIR) in Paris, France. NAMIR was inspired by the National Resistance Movement that was established after the fall of Mohammad Mosaddeq’s government in 1953. Bakhtiar invited all liberal-nationalist groups and individuals to unite their forces around one political platform under the Movement’s umbrella. In its “Intellectual Principles and Political Platform”, published on January 15, 1981, the National Resistance Movement announced its aim to be the establishment of democracy and a system based upon the free will of the people, so that citizens could be provided with the opportunity for a free, fruitful, and valuable life. Bakhtiar insisted upon a pluralistic political structure, and considered commitment to patriotism, democracy, and social justice to be the necessary conditions for membership in NAMIR. 

NAMIR undertook, in its own words, “to establish the rule of law in Iran under a political system whose form and principles shall be freely approved and elected by the Iranian nation with the framework of international law and practice.” Such a system would “respect the charter of the United-Nations and the provision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' and “observe fundamental freedoms” while “[dedicating] itself to the cause of international peace and security.” **

In the early years of its activity, a wide array of Iranians both inside and outside Iran either joined or supported NAMIR. Among its principal activities were organizing political and military branches in various countries and in Iran; establishing contact with those opposed to the regime inside Iran and striving to organize them and to gather political and military intelligence; organizing assemblies and protests; disseminating Iran-related news, especially information regarding human rights violations and arbitrary executions inside and outside the country and promoting human rights and democracy through publication of books and magazines (“Nehzat” weekly magazine and “Qiam-e Iran” weekly); establishment of radio broadcasts in various countries including Iraq and Egypt; conducting interviews with foreign and Persian language media; corresponding with human rights institutions including the United Nations to report human rights violation including the mass murder of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 or calling for a referendum on the Islamic Republic under UN auspices. 

In the first decade of its establishment, Many NAMIR members were threatened and assassinated. On July 18, 1980, Bakhtiar had also been the victim of a foiled assassination attempt during which two French citizens were killed. Several officers of NAMIR’s military Branch were also victims of extrajudicial executions outside Iran in the 1980s. Bakhtiar and Abdorrahman Borumand, the president of NAMIR’s Executive Committee were stabbed to death in France on April 18 and August 6 1991.  

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 Borumand 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 the local authorities have not issued arrest warrants. But documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm, however, the theory of state committed crimes. In certain cases, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion or arrest of Iranian diplomats. In limited cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial and 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 who 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.***

Threats and Failed Assassination Attempts 

Mr. Borumand knew he was a risk. As Shapur Bakhtiar’s close adviser, a founding member of the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance and the Head of its Council, he was known to be on the Islamic Republic’s hit list. Several members of the movement had been assassinated in Turkey and Pakistan in the 1980s. Abolghasem Mesbahi, also known as Witness C, a former high ranking intelligent agent who took refuge in Europe in 1996, has stated to his police interviewers that intellectuals and liberals were the type of dissidents the Islamic Republic’s leaders were concerned about. (ABC interview with Roya Borumand) In the confession of the intelligence agents arrested following several assassinations, including that of Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar, liberals were infidels and a long-term target of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. (notes from the Foruhars’ case file, FreedomVatan)

French authorities had warned Borumand about the risk and authorized him to carry an arm, which he acquired but never carried with him, and recommended he wore a bulletproof vest. For a short period, he also used the services of a bodyguard, but decided to let go of him. He argued that unless one sleeps in a different location every night, the state will succeed. He said that a terror attempt against him may also unnecessarily cause the death of his bodyguard.(ABC interview with Ladan Borumand) 

In February 1986, French authorities foiled an assassination attempt targeting Borumand by arresting two armed men waiting in a red Opel about 200 meters from Place Vauban. The Borumand family had not been informed about this incident. (Interview Roya Borumand) Despite several assassinations in Europe of high profile opposition members (Abdolrahaman Qassemlou (July 1989), Kazem Rajavi (April 1990), Cyrus Elahi (October 1990) in less than two years before Mr. Borumand’s assassination, No arrests had been made and French authorities had taken no measure to ensure his protection in Paris or give him serious warnings about imminent threats.   

Mr. Abdorrahman Borumand’s Extrajudicial Execution

On April 18th, 1991, Mr. Borumand  was found stabbed and lying in front of the elevator in the lobby of his apartment building 3 Place Vauban in Paris. (Case file, and ABC newsletter, April 18, 2016). 

On the morning of April 18, Dr. Borumand attended a meeting with Dr. Bakhtiar. Around mid-day, he returned to the apartment building in which he lived with his family. His son who was waiting for him to have lunch, saw him park his car in its usual place. At 2:04 pm, the employee of one of the apartment building’s resident who lived on the ground floor found him stabbed by the elevator. The aggression is believed to have taken place between 13:30 and 13:50. The firemen, who arrived at 14:10 and the emergency medical team who was on site at 2:20 PM were not able to resuscitate him. 

The forensic report states that Mr. Borumand was stabbed nine times, once above his right wrist, four times on the chest and four times on his back, forcefully enough to cause serious damage to his vital organs and break two of his ribs. (ABC interview with Roya Boroumand)

The case file, which remains open more than thirty years after the assassination, contains no information on the individual or individuals involved in the crime. On April 7, 1993, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, the French magistrate in charge of the investigation, asserted that the cases of Bakhtiar, assassinated on August 6, 1991 by the Iranian agents, and Borumand were inextricably connected. In the trial of Bakhtiar’s murderers in December 1994, the prosecuting attorney, Mouton, attributed the assassination of Dr. Borumand to the state sponsored terrorism of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He asserted that this murder along with Bakhtiar’s assassination aimed at neutralizing the National Movement for the Iranian 

The family buried Dr. Borumand in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, while waiting for the opportunity to take his remains to Iran, as per his wishes. Members of political groups and Iran’s minorities were part of the large crowd in attendance, sent flowers for the ceremony, and published statements condemning the assassination as another state sponsored killing. (Borumand Center’s research, interview with Ladan Boroumand.) The family has been represented by the lawyers of the organization SOS attentat, which supports the victims of terrorism in France.

French Officials’ Reaction

Immediately after the assassination, France assigned an investigative magistrate in charge of the counter-terrorism section of the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris to investigate Mr. Borumand’s case and eventually recognized Dr. Borumand’s family members as victims of terrorism. The investigators focused however, for months on the thesis of an ordinary crime investigating friends and collaborators. Even after the assassination of the leader of NAMIR by Iranian agents on August 6, 1991, the police continued to investigate individuals close to Dr. Borumand and little progress was made on the case. (interview with Roya Boroumadn)

Whether or not the French intelligence officials who had been informed since 1989, of the existence of an Iranian agent called Mashhadi, residing in France and mandated to organize the elimination of dissidents, is not known. One such dissident, Cyrus Elahi, had been shot dead in 1990. Mashhadi was detained and interrogated after the killing of Dr. Bakhtiar and his secretary Sorush Katibeh, as was his accomplice, Mohsen Yazdanseta. Eventually both men were arrested in 1993 for planning to  assassinate the French Iranian police officer who was also an interpreter in the investigation of Bakhtiar’s case. They were sentenced to seven and three years in prison respectively. There is no indication in the case file of any investigation, before and after the assassination of Borumand, of the movements and phone calls of known agents of the Islamic Republic such as Mashhadi and other individuals suspected of involvement in subversive activities by the DST (Directorate of Territorial Security), the intelligence agency responsible for internal security. Mashhadi and Yazdanseta were interrogated on Dr.Borumand’s assassination after their arrest in December 1993 and June 1994. Yazdanseta, who had confessed to having worked for Mashhadi in relation to Cyrus Elahi, died in unknown circumstances before being tried for his involvement in Elahi’s murder. In the absence of this witness, the court decided to set Mashhadi free. 

Iranian Officials’ Reaction

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s officials attributed the murder to internal conflicts within NAMIR (IranWire documentary). 

A few days after the assassination, semi-official newspapers, Ettelaat and Kayhan, attributed Borumand’s assassination to NAMIR’s internal tensions and power struggles with identical wording. Ettelaat in a short report entitled: “Coalition, Dissension, Revenge,” specified that "Dr. Abdolrahman Borumand, a corrupt element affiliated with the decadent Pahlavi regime and a high-ranking member of the so-called National Resistance Movement, was attacked by an unknown individual or individuals in front of his personal residence in Paris, the capital of France, on 18 April 1991 (70/1/29 in the Iranian calendar) and met his demise (halakat) as a result of stab wounds." (Kayhan, April 22nd and Ettelaat April 23rd, 1991).

In an extensive article regarding the assassination of Bakhtiar and other members of the National Resistance Movement (published on September 18, 1991), the semi-official Iranian newspaper, Jomhuri Eslami, which, until its dissolution, was the outlet of the ruling Islamic Republic Party, denied Iran’s role in the assassination. The daily provided a detailed description of NAMIR and the activities of a number of assassinated members of the organization including Mr. Borumand. The article noted that “the French government’s protective ring around the Iranian counter-revolutionaries re siding in that country is fragile and penetrable” and emphasized: “Naturally, this vulnerability, and the French police’s inability to protect the refugees’ lives, will result in the counter-revolutionaries losing their trust in their capabilities, especially since not much time has passed since the assassination of Abdorrahman Borumand, the National Resistance Movement’s number two man (after Bakhtiar), and Sirus Elahi, deputy to Manuchehr Ganji (leader of the Derafsh-e Kaviani Organization), in Paris.” It concluded that these “murders, along with the successful assassination of the translators of Satanic Verses in Japan and Italy, has increased the counter-revolutionaries’ fear of death manifold” and resulted in the weakening of the Islamic Republic’s opponents. 

The article outlined accurately the activities of NAMIR’s three branches, which it enumerated as Political, Tribal, and Cover branches. It described NAMIR’s objectives as “establishing a royalist regime on a democratic basis,” “creating the grounds for the separation of religion and politics,” and the promotion of Bakhtiar’s commitments as a social democrat, namely “patriotism,” “freedom,” and “socialism.” The article. The political branch sought to “disseminate the views and thoughts of the movement’s leadership regarding political events and present a campaign program to the resistance cells and grouplets inside the country,” while “encouraging pride in the ancient national culture and promoting the revival of nationalist ideas.” With regards to the Tribal Branch, Jomhuri Eslami noted following a short description, that NAMIR had little success in this area.  A covert Branch, meanwhile, worked to “harmonize among, and disseminate the appropriate policies and tactics to, the units inside the country.” This covert branch was reportedly able to recruit “elements… who had either left or fled the country, and in this way, was able to expand its counter-revolutionary actions against the system.” “The fugitive Abdorrahman Borumand, who was able to establish and build up a large number of secret cells inside the country, led this network.”.(Jomhuri Eslami, September 18, 1991).

In 1992, in a speech on the success of security forces in eliminating opposition members, Ali Fallahian, the Islamic Republic’s then-Minister of Information stated: “… We succeeded in inflicting major blows to many of these little groups outside the country and along the border” (Speech broadcast on State Radio and Television on August 31, 1992; quoted from Asr-e Iran, May 19, 2010).

NAMIR’s ReactionImmediately after the murder, Mr. Bakhtiar attributed it to the Islamic Republic of Iran. NAMIR stated the government of Iran had conducted the assassination to deprive the organization of Mr. Borumands’ leadership skills, as well as to compensate for a prior failed assassination attempt against Mr. Bakhtiar (IranWire documentary). 

Family’s Reaction

Dr. Borumand’s children have been seeking justice since his assassination pressing the police to interview informed sources susceptible to having information in order to prevent the closure of the case. They organized a public memorial after Dr. Borumand’s death and for over twenty years held public gatherings in the Montparnasse Cemetery on the anniversary of his death.

A few months after Dr. Borumand’s killing, his daughter Ladan published an opinion piece in the daily Le Monde, which started with: “For him, this bloody epilogue is the glorious culmination of an entire life of struggle for freedom. But we are paying a heavy price for the cause of freedom, and this sacrifice must not be dismissed on the rotten altar of state interests, in Tehran as in Beijing, This is why I cry out this excruciating pain endured by tens of thousands of Iranians in the darkness of silence. Isn’t my father’s murder a formal thank-you note addressed to the democratic government of France by the Islamic Republic, for the impunity granted to the Gordjis and the release of the Naccaches?” 

In 2001, on the tenth anniversary of Dr. Borumand’s assassination, his daughters, Ladan and Roya, founded a documentation organization in his name to memorialize all those whose right to life was violated by the Islamic Republic and promote a culture of human rights and democracy.

Impact on the Family

The killing of their husband and father had a devastating impact on the family. In the absence of truth and justice, his family members, as those of many other victims of transnational repression, are forced to live without closure.

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* He also placed his apartment, in a Paris suburb, at the disposal of Bakhtiar. It was in this apartment that, in July 1980, a first assassination attempt was carried out against Bakhtiar by a team of Palestinians directed by a Chiite Lebanese and posing as journalists. The killers did not manage to harm Bakhtiar but they killed a French policeman and his neighbor. Another police officer they shot was paralyzed for life. 

** NAMIR committed itself to three objectives: “the establishment of social justice with a secular, non-ideological and non-sectarian content,” “the principle of independence” (encompassing “furtherance of international cooperation, [and the] attainment of peace in the regional conflicts [i.e. the Iran-Iraq War] through international cooperation), and the “principle of democracy” (with “utmost importance” attached to “the preservation by the Iranian nation of all its acquisitions resulting from the constitutional revolution of 1906”). Emphasizing a vision of liberal popular sovereignty, NAMIR stressed that it could “neither impose on the country a given ideology under the grand title of social justice,” nor “allow any political current to attempt such imposition. Choice in all matters must be made through the free expression of opinion of the people” (National Movement of the Iranian Resistance, a brochure published by NAMIR-UK, 1985).

 *** 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.