Information regarding the extrajudicial killing of Mr. Nabi Mofidi was published in the Tufan Publication, Iran Labor Party’s print publication. (August 2010). News of Mr. Mofidi’s execution was also published in Mojahed Publication’s Appendix Number 261, published by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization of Iran, dated September 6, 1985. This Appendix contains the names of 12,028 individuals, mostly affiliated with political groups opposed to the Iranian regime, who were either executed between June 20, 1981, until the date of publication of the Mojahed Publication, or killed in skirmishes with the Islamic Republic police forces.

According to available information, Mr. Mofidi was a high school student, single, and an active supporter or the Tufan Party. He was born in a hardworking family. At the age of 10, he became familiar with the Party and its works through his teacher, Janbarar Ruhi (member of the Tufan Party who was executed by firing squad on August 18, 1981). He became a member of the Party’s Student Section “Shanbeh-ye Sorkh” (“Red Saturday”) upon its establishment, and started his activities in the village of Mahmudabad and its vicinity.

According to Tufan Publication, Mr. Mofidi “always vigorously defended the students’ legitimate demands. He was always harassed by radicals and extremists, and was subjected to physical and psychological pressure and cowardly attacks.” After June 20, 1981 when most of Mahmudabad’s political activists fled, Mr. Mofidi also went to Yeylagh (mountainous regions in the Caspian Sea region where the locals go to escape heat and humidity) with his mother.

The Tufan Organization

The Marxist-Leninist Organization of Tufan was founded in the late 1960s. De-Stalinization policy of Khoroshev in the Soviet Union led to a political crisis in Iranian communist party Tudeh, as in many communist parties around the world. Three Tudeh leaders i.e. Forutan, Qasemi & Saqa’i left the Party in 1963 to found the “Revolutionary Organization of the Tudeh Party” and then the “Marxist-Leninist Organization of Tufan”. The organization changed its name after the 1979 revolution and first became The Party of workers and farmers of Iran and later on Iran Work Party, Tufan. The Party believed in a one-party system and supported a political system modeled after Albania, which it considered as the only socialist countries. The Organization of Struggling Workers of Iran is a split from Tufan founded by some of the party’s personnel.

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. Ever 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 during the existence of the Islamic Republic both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has identified over 540 murders outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. (3)

Opponents of the Islamic Republic have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic in various ways 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, not much information has been published about these murders and local officials have not issued any arrest warrants. 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.

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. (4).  Iranian authorities have not officially accepted responsibility for these murders and have even attributed their commission to their opposition. 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 talking 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; and Ali Arabshahi Facebook Page, June 17, 2013). At different times and on various occasions, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political, judicial, and security officials have confirmed the existence of long-term policies, planning, and budgets for the implementation of these killings, and have also confirmed their successful implementation in certain instances.*

Mr. Nabi Mofidi’s Death 

According to available information, on July 7, 1981, when Mr. Nabi Mofidi was going to Mahmudabad to get some news about Mr. Ruhi who was in jail in the town of Babolsar at the time, the Revolutionary Guards staged an [car] accident, thereby causing his death. They then threw his bloody body to the side of the road and left the scene.

Mojahed Publication has labeled Mr. Mofidi’s death an assassination.

Officials’ Reaction

There is no information regarding the officials’ reaction to Mr. Mofidi’s death.

Family’s Reaction

There is no information regarding Mr. Mofidi’s family’s reaction to his death.

Impacts on Family

There is no information regarding the impact of Mr. Mofidi’s death on his family.

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* (To read the complete text of “Background of Extrajudicial Killings by the Islamic Republic of Iran” which includes statements by various officials of the Islamic Republic and the historic record of the killings, please click on the icon to the right.)