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

Fahimeh Jame' Kalhoran

About

Age: 28
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Shi'a)
Civil Status: Unknown

Case

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

About this Case

Ms. Fahimeh Jame’ Kalhoran is among 3208 members and sympathizers of the People's Mojahedin of Iran Organization (PMIO) whose execution was reported by the organization in a book entitled Crime Against Humanity. This book documents the 1988-89 mass execution of political prisoners. Additional information was drawn from the Bidaran website.

Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran is also one of the 1533 executed prisoners listed by the Association of Iranian Women of Köln (Germany). The list published in 1997 is entitled: "A partial list of names of women executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Further information was sent to Omid via an electronic form by one of her former cellmates. Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran was born in 1960 and a Mathematics student at the Karaj College. She is remembered for being kind and open-minded.

Arrest and detention

According to the form, Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran was arrested in 1981. She was detained at the Evin Prison and her former cellmate recalls that they were in held in the disciplinary section of the prison from 1986 until Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran’s execution.

Trial

Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran was reportedly tried and had received a 10 or 15 year prison sentence before being executed. There is no specific information about the circumstances of these trials that condemned this defendant and thousands of other political prisoners to death in a few months period.

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 the 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, at the time they were retried and sentenced to death.

Charges

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 PMOI'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.

Evidence of guilt

No information is available regarding the evidence presented against the defendant.

Defense

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 guerillas 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 any political group outside Iran.

Judgment

No sentence was issued publicly. Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran’s cellmate is quoted on the form stating that all the Mojaheds from the disciplinary section were executed. They were lined up for execution in the hallways three times, but each time the prison authorities had told them, that it was not their turn yet to be executed. Ms. Jame’ Kalhoran was the second-to-last prisoner to be executed from the disciplinary section during the mass prison executions of 1988-89.

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