Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Memorial
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Fa'ezeh (Zahra) Rajabi

About

Age: 38
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Shi'a)
Civil Status: Married

Case

Date of Killing: February 20, 1996
Location of Killing: Millet Cd. No. 21, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey
Mode of Killing: Extrajudicial shooting
Charges: Unknown charge

Human rights violations in this case

Extrajudicial killings

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, with the murder of Parviz Sayyah Sina, an Anglican Bishop, and have continued since then, both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has so far identified over 500 extrajudicial killings outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.(1)

Dissidents have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic outside Iran, where one of the first assassinations, that of a Navy Officer, Shahriar Shafiq, took place in Paris in December 1979. These assassinations have taken place 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 too many cases, states have failed to guarantee the victims’ rights to the truth, justice, and remedy; states have revealed little about the assassinations and have not issued arrest warrants. Where there have been arrests and prosecutions, available information reveals a state policy of eliminating perceived enemies. 

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 (The Netherlands, 2018) or arrest (Brussels, 2020; Turkey, 2021) of Iranian diplomats. In limited cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial (Paris 1980 and 1991) and the evidence presented, revealed the defendants’ connection to Iran’s government institutions, and an arrest warrant (the Mikonos Trial in Germany) has been issued for Iran’s then-Minister of Information, Ali Fallahian and the Deputy Minister of Telecommunications, Hossein Sheikh Attar.

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. (2). In 1997, the Berlin Criminal Court, in charge of hearing the case of the shooting of Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant, officially announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s highest-ranking officials had issued the order to carry out the killings. According to the indictment, the decision to commit the murders was made in a committee called the “Special Operations Committee” composed of the President, the Minister of Information and Security (VAVAK), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, representatives of the various security organs and other organizations, and finally, the Leader of the Revolution. 

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 (“one whose blood may be spilled, whose life can be taken, without the perpetrator incurring any punishment”) and their sentence is death regardless of where they are [and where you find them].” 

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” (Speech broadcast on the state-run Iranian Radio and Television on August 31, 1992, quoted from Asr Iran, August 17, 2006).

Extrajudicial killings have rarely been pursued legally in Iran. The few murders that were followed up on in 1998 , which came to be known as “the Serial (Chain) Murders(3),” have brought to light the involvement and responsibility of the country’s Information officials. Several Ministry of Information agents who were defendants in the Serial Murders case, confirmed the existence of a long term government policy of extrajudicial killings and emphasized that there was planning on an annual basis to carry out these executions, for which a religious decree was issued. There was a budget allocated and there were objectives set, and those who participated in the murders were commended. In a lecture given at [the city of] Hamedan’s Bu Ali University in 1996, Sa’eed Emami, Ministry of Information Deputy Minister for Security Affairs and one of the principal defendants in the Serial Murders case – who was later said by Iranian officials to have committed suicide while in detention – had stressed that the activities of Iran’s security forces were not confined to the country’s borders: “ … We have set the security perimeter within the confines of our borders. [However,] if we see threats infiltrating inside the country from abroad, we will enlarge the perimeter.”

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1) Among the first known murders that occurred a week after the February 1979 Revolution was that of Mr. Parviz (Arastu) Sayyah Sina, the bishop of a church in the city of Shiraz. The assassination of Mr. Shahriar Shafiq, an Imperial Navy officer, in December 1979 in Paris is among the first murders committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the country. ​​These killings continued in the following years inside and outside the country and in various forms.
2) Investigations into the murder of well-known personalities in France, Germany and Switzerland have yielded evidence and documentation showing that the officials and employees of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran acted as accomplices and principals [in the killings]. In France, the Islamic Republic’s Deputy Minister of Post and Telegraph was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for the murder of former Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar and his assistant, Sorush Katibeh. In Germany (Berlin), the Islamic Republic’s security agents and agents of the Lebanese Hezbollah were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of four Kurdish opposition leaders. In connection with the latter case, German Judicial authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian, the then-Minister of Information. 
3) A few days before Mr. Mokhtari’s murder, Dariush Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, leaders of the People of Iran Party, had been killed in a most heinous manner in their own home. After Mr. Mokhtari’s body was found, the body of Mohammad Ja’far Puyandeh, another well-known literary figure, was discovered in a village near the city of Karaj. These four individuals’ cases was named the “Serial Murders”.
Human rights violations

Based on the available information, the following human rights may have been violated in this case:

  • The right to liberty and security of the person. The right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 9.1.

  • The right not to be punished for any crime on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time it was committed. 

UDHR, Article 11.2; ICCPR, Article 15, Article 6.2. 

  • The right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation. 

UDHR, Article 12, ICCPR, Article 17.1. 

  • The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to change and manifest one’s religion or belief.

UDHR, Article 18; ICCPR, Article 18.1, ICCPR, Article 18.2; Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, Article 1 and Article 6.

In its general comment 22 (48) of 20 July 1993, the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee observed that the freedom to "have or to adopt" a religion or belief necessarily entailed the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one’s current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views, as well as the right to retain one’s religion or belief. Article 18, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert.

  • The right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.

UDHR, Article 19; ICCPR, Article 19.1 and ICCPR, Article 19.2.

  • The right to freedom of peaceful assembly. 

UDHR, Article 20; ICCPR, Article 21.

  • The right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of one’s interests.

UDHR, Article 20; ICCPR, Article 22.1.

  • The right, as a member of a religious or ethnic minority, to enjoy one’s own culture or to profess and practice one’s own religion. 

UDHR, Article 18; ICCPR, Article 27.

  • The right to equality before the law and the right to equal protection of the law. 

UDHR, Article 7; ICCPR, Article 26.

The right to due process

  • The right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a competent and impartial tribunal in accordance with law.

ICCPR, Article 14.1 and Article 14.2.

Capital punishment

  • The inherent right to life, of which no one shall be arbitrarily deprived.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 6.1; Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, Article 1.1, Article 1.2.

  • The right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.

About this Case

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She studied architecture in Iran and like many other students, ended up joining an opposition group to fight the Islamic Republic. But the deadly hand of Iran’s summary justice extended into Turkey.

News and information about the extrajudicial execution of Ms. Fa'ezeh (Zahra) Rajabi, who was known as Maryam Jokar in Turkey, has been obtained from the indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey (June/July/August 2000), the verdict issued by the 11th branch of the Ankara Criminal Court (July 28, 2005), the website of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet (January 24, 1997), reports of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (October 15, 1997, and August 23, 1998), Iran Efshagar (February 20, 2020) and the annual report of Amnesty International (2000). Additional information about this case has been obtained from the electronic form sent to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) by one of the relatives of Mr. Ali Panah Moradi, who was killed with her (January 27, 2017), and other sources*

Ms. Rajabi was born in Tehran in 1957, and was married. While studying architecture at the National University (Beheshti University) in Tehran, she was active in student political activities against the Pahlavi government, and after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, she became a member of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization. (Be Suye Piruzi, July 26, 2016)

After the beginning of the Mojahedin Khalq’s armed actions on June 20, 1981, she became a commander of one of this party’s operational bases. In 1984, she became a member of the Central Committee and Executive Board of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization. Beginning in 1988, Ms. Rajabi was commander of one of the divisions of the liberation army for two years, participated in this party’s Operation Eternal Light, and then worked as the commander of the seventh division of the liberation army in the field of support, training and readying of this army’s combat units. (Qiyam ta Azadi, September 27, 2020)

In 1991, she became responsible for the central office of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization outside Iran, and in the winter of 1995, she became responsible for defending the rights of Iranian refugees in Turkey. At the time of her death, Ms. Rajabi was a member of the Mojahedin Leadership Council and a member of the National Council of the Resistance. (Iran Efshagar, February 23, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2016) She was also the organization’s representative in France. (Cumhuriyet newspaper, June 5, 1998)

Ms. Rajabi went to Turkey for the last time on January 28, 1996, and was supposed to leave Turkey in late February or early March of the same year. (Iran Efshagar, February 23, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2016)

The Mojahedin Khalq Organization

The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) was founded in 1965. This organization adopted the principles of Islam as its ideological guideline. However, its members’ interpretation of Islam was revolutionary, and they believed in an armed struggle against the Shah’s regime. They valued Marxism as a progressive economic and social analysis method but considered Islam their source of inspiration, culture, and ideology. In the 1970s, the MKO was weakened when many members were imprisoned and executed. In 1975 following a profound ideological crisis, the organization refuted Islam as its ideology, and after a few of its members were killed and other Muslim members purged, the organization proclaimed Marxism as its ideology. This move led to the split of the Marxist-Leninist Section of the MKO in 1977. In January 1979, the imprisoned Muslim leaders of the MKO were released along with other political prisoners. They began re-organizing the MKO and recruiting new members based on Islamic ideology. After the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the MKO accepted the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and supported the Revolution. Active participation in the political scene and infiltration of governmental institutions were foremost on the organization’s agenda. During the first two years after the Revolution, the MKO succeeded in recruiting numerous sympathizers, especially in high schools and universities. Still, its efforts to gain political power, either by appointment or election, were vehemently opposed by the Islamic Republic leaders.**

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 Boroumand 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 local authorities have not issued arrest warrants. But documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm the theory of state committed crimes. In some instances, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion or arrest of Iranian diplomats. In a few cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial. 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 that 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. 

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.

Ms. Fa'ezeh (Zahra) Rajabi’s Death

Ms. Fa'ezeh (Zahra) Rajabi was killed on February 20, 1996, in her home in Mellat St., No. 21, Unit 7, in the Aksaray neighborhood of the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey, along with one of her fellow party members. (Indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups, June/July/August 2000, electronic form, January 27, 2017; Amnesty International's annual report, 1996; Hurriyet newspaper, Turkey, January 24, 1997; article published by Brigham Young University in the USA, 2013)

According to the available information, "an Iranian businessman living in Turkiye, who had been collaborating with the Iranian Ministry of Information since 1994, and who introduced himself among Iranian refugees as a staunch opponent of the Iranian government and a supporter of the Mojahedin’e Khalq Organization, under the pretext of helping Iranian refugees, succeeded in establishing a close relationship with Ms. Rajabi and gained her trust. He regularly sent information about Ms. Rajabi's movements and residence to agents of the Information Ministry in Iran.” (Iran Efshagar, February 23, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2014)

According to available reports, two agents of the Iranian Ministry of Information went to Turkey on February 9, 1996, using false identities and diplomatic passport to assassinate Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member. Before planning to assassinate Ms. Rajabi, they had intended to kidnap her. They went to to her apartment at 9 P.M. on February 16, 1996, accompanied by the Iranian businessman but because some other party members were there, they gave up and left the building. On the morning of February 20, 1996,, a high-ranking official of this ministry entered Turkey with a false identity and diplomatic passport. Intelligence agents, accompanied by the embassy attaché and the press attaché of the Iranian embassy in Ankara and the deputies of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, with the cooperation of an Iranian businessman and a Turkish citizen, attacked Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member at 9 PM on February 20, 1996, using a weapon equipped with a silencer. Five shots were fired and the killers immediately fled the place and returned to Iran via airplane a day later. (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2014; Be Suye Piruzi, July 26, 2016) The Turkish police discovered the bodies of the victims a few days later, after neighbors called. (Iran’e Ma, February 23, 2014)

The Turkish police discovered the weapons used in the murder of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, which were "Uzi" type weapons, in the Sincan area of Ankara. (Indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey, June/July/August 2000)

In his April 3, 1996, confession regarding the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, the Iranian businessman stated: "We knocked on the door of the victims’ apartment, which was on Mellat Road. Mohsen Kargar Azad [a diplomat from the Iranian consulate in Istanbul], who is a short man and one of the Iranian Kurds, entered the apartment together with another short statured Kurd with three automatic weapons with silencers in their hands. I went down the stairs and then I heard gunshots" (Indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey, June/July/August 2000)

In his confession, this businessman stated: "I knocked on the door with the same code that we previously agreed to with the victims. As soon as the door was opened, the agents entered the house and killed them with silencer weapons.” (Cumhuriyet newspaper, May 24, 1996)

The indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey in June/July/August 2000 mentions the identity and character of nine Iranian and Turkish citizens, including Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, who were killed either directly by Iranian government forces or by Turkish Islamist groups acting upon the orders of the Iranian government. In this indictment, the diplomats of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul are declared to be responsible for the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member.

Ms. Rajabi's body was buried in France. (United States Institute of Peace, September 21, 2020) There is no information available regarding how Ms. Rajabi’s body was transported to France.

Turkish Government’s Reaction

On May 20, 1996, Turkish police arrested an Iranian businessman working with the Information Ministry and a Turkish citizen who was in charge of guarding the apartment during the assassination. (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020) There is no information available in regard to details of how they were arrested.

In the early winter of 1996-97, after five trials, the 7th Criminal Court of Istanbul, Turkey, sentenced the Iranian businessman, on the charge of "participating in the intentional murder of Ms. Rajabi and her colleague to 32 years and 6 months of imprisonment with hard labor (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020), He was found guilty of "using his acquaintanceship with the victims to open the door of their apartment to the killers." According to this verdict, the defendant stated in his confession: "On the order of the Iranian Information Organization, especially agents Saeed Chobtarash (Asghar), Rahim Afshar (Rasoul), Haj Qasem (Zargar Panah) and Jalal (Mohsen Kargar Azad), I participated in the murder of Ms. Rajabi and her colleague in the suburbs of the Fatih district of Istanbul.” (Report of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, October 15, 1997) This sentence was rejected by the appeals court and changed to two death sentences. (Cumhuriyet newspaper, June 5, 1998)

During his trial, the Iranian businessman stated in court: "Iranian security agents threatened my mother in Iran as well as my wife and child in Turkey and asked me to gather information about Rajabi and Moradi and to collaborate with them. They then asked me to communicate with the victims."(Cumhuriyet newspaper, May 24, 1996)

This businessman also stated during his last defense in court: "He is a victim of the Iranian secret service's conspiracy. He said that he did not participate in this operation of his own free will. He added that he was portrayed as a spy in this operation. I am not a spy and I have not received any training. I'm not even a professional." The Turkish citizen, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, was released due to the lack of sufficient evidence against him (according to Cumhuriyet newspaper, January 25, 1997), but years later, during the case of the assassination of several Iranian and Turkish citizens, he was re-arrested and confessed that he was in contact with intelligence forces and diplomats from the Iranian consulate in Istanbul and that he was also involved in the murder of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member. (Indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey, June/July/August 2000)

In the summer of 2000, the Prosecutor General of Turkey charged 24 defendants, who were members of Turkish Islamist groups, with participating in 22 terrorist operations against Turkish and Iranian citizens on Turkish soil. These people were arrested and tried after several operations that same year and in July/August 2004, the initial court verdict was issued against them. These people admitted in court that they had been in direct contact with Iran's security and intelligence forces since approximately 1981, and that they had traveled to Iran many times for military and political training and had received financial, educational and military support. They also admitted that for many years they had carried out terrorist operations against opponents of the Iranian government in Turkey at the behest of the Iranian government. (Indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey, June/July/August 2000; Verdict issued by the 11th branch of the Ankara Criminal Court, July 28, 2005) Despite extensive research, the Boroumand Center did not find the final verdict for these defendants, or information regarding their fate.

According to available information, the Turkish government called four diplomats from the Islamic Republic of Iran's consulate in Istanbul undesirable elements because of their role in the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member and asked them to leave Turkish soil ((Indictment issued against Tohid Salam and IRGC Qods Force groups in Turkey, June/July/August 2000; Report of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, September 20, 1998) These four diplomats returned to Iran on April 17, 1996. (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020; Hurriyet newspaper, January 25, 2000)

In its report to the special representative of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, with regard to the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, the Turkish Prosecutor's Office emphasized the role of officials of one of the institutions of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran [Ministry of Information] in these assassinations. (Report of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, October 15, 1997)

Mojahedin Khalq Organization’s Reaction

Following the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, the Mojahedin Khalq Organization asked the Turkish government to arrest and punish the perpetrators of their assassination. (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020)

A foreign policy official of the Mojahedin Khalq organization stated that the Iranian government was directly responsible for the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, which was carried out by members of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul. (Cumhuriyet newspaper, August 1, 1996)

Following the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, a number of Iranian refugees, most of whom were members and supporters of the Mojahedin’e Khalq Organization, demonstrated outside the Iranian embassy in Ankara on February 11, 1997, and burned pictures of Khomeini and Khamenei. (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2014).

Iranian Officials’ Reaction

The Iranian government denied that it or Iranian diplomats had played a role in the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member and announced that they were killed during internal disputes of the Mojahedin Khalq organization. Iran also reacted to the demonstrations of the supporters and members of the Mojahedin Khalq organization in Turkey after the assassination, it summoned the Turkish ambassador in Tehran to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and protested to the Turkish government. (Report of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, September 23, 1996; Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2014)

Following the arrest of several perpetrators of the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member in the summer of 2000, the Iranian government arrested several Turkish citizens in the cities of Tehran, Tabriz and Urmia on charges of spying for the Turkish government. (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020 and Iran Asrar, February 20, 2014, quoting the French news agency, April 9, 1996)

A Turkish government official recalled that “the arrest of four Turkish citizens occurred while Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Tuygan was visiting Tehran, hoping the issue would be resolved peacefully by his requesting the departure of the four Iranians who were still in Turkey; he informed the Iranian authorities of the results of an investigation regarding Iran's connection with a fundamentalist Turkish terrorist leader who had been arrested in Istanbul a month previously.” (Iran Efshagar, February 20, 2020; Iran Asrar, February 20, 2014)

There is no information available on the fate of the arrested Turkish citizens.

Family’s’ Reaction

After the assassination of Ms. Rajabi and her fellow party member, her husband and sister stated in a press conference that these two people were assassinated by forces of the Ministry of Information on the orders of the then-President and Information Minister of Iran, and with the cooperation of the employees of the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul. (Cumhuriyet newspaper, May 24, 1996)

Impacts on Family

There is no information regarding the impact of Ms. Rajabi's assassination on her family.

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* Other sources include: the website Be Suye Piruzi (July 26, 2016, the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet (May 24 and August 1, 1996, January 25, 1997, April 21, 2000, June 5, 1998), the Turkish newspaper Milliyet (May 8, 2000) Iran’e Ma (February 23, 2020), Iran Asrar (February 20, 2016), Qiyam ta Azadi (September 27, 2020), United States Institute of Peace (September 21, 2020) (May 19, 1996) and an article published by Brigham Young University in the USA (2013).
** The exclusion of MKO members from government offices and the closure of their centers and publishing houses, in conjunction with the Islamic Republic authorities’ different interpretations of Islam, widened the gap between them. Authorities of the new regime referred to the Mojahedin as “Hypocrites” and the Hezbollahi supporters of the regime attacked the Mojahedin sympathizers regularly during demonstrations and while distributing publications, leading to the death of several MKO supporters. On June 20, 1981, the MKO called for a demonstration protesting their treatment by governmental officials and the government officials’ efforts to impeach their ally, President Abolhassan Banisadr. Despite the fact that the authorities called this demonstration illegal, thousands came to the streets, some of whom confronted the Revolutionary Guardsmen and Hezbollahis. The number of casualties that resulted from this demonstration is unknown, but many demonstrators were arrested and executed in the following days and weeks. The day after the demonstration, the Islamic Republic regime started a repressive campaign – unprecedented in modern Iranian history. Thousands of MKO members and sympathizers were arrested or executed. On June 21, 1981, the MKO announced an armed struggle against the Islamic Republic and assassinated several high-ranking officials and supporters of the Islamic regime. 
In the summer of 1981, the leader of the MKO and the impeached President (Banisadr) fled Iran to reside in France, where they founded the National Council of Resistance. After the MKO leaders and many of its members were expelled from France, they went to Iraq and founded the National Liberation Army of Iran in 1987, which entered Iranian territory a few times during the Iran-Iraq war. They were defeated in July 1988 during their last operation, the Forugh Javidan Operation. A few days after this operation, thousands of imprisoned Mojahedin supporters were killed during the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. Since the summer of 1981, the MKO has continued its activities outside Iran. No information is available regarding the members and activities of the MKO inside the country. 
Despite the “armed struggle” announcement by the MKO on June 20, 1981, many sympathizers of the organization had no military training, were not armed, and did not participate in armed conflict.

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