News and information regarding the extrajudicial killing of Mr. Nureddin (Nader) Tavakoli Nabavi, son of Mitra and Mohammad Ali, and his father was published in Kayhan Published in London newspaper (October 8, 1987), the Times newspaper (October 4, 1987), and the Washington Post (November 1, 1987).

According to available information, Mr. Nureddin Tavakoli Nabavi was 24 years old and single. After the 1979 Revolution, his father sent him to England along with the rest of the family, and remained in Iran himself. After his father came to London, Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi would go with him to Hyde Park every week, and translate his father’s speeches against the Islamic Republic into English for the listeners present at the Park. He would also distribute leaflets against the Islamic Republic among the attendees. (Kayhan Published in London newspaper). After arriving in London, Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi’s father continued his political activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and founded “the Nationalist Youth Association” along with other supporters of the constitutional monarchy, and published a newspaper called Nationalist Youth. This group also organized and conducted a number of meetings in London. When Ms. Moneer Tavakoli, Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi’s mother, had gone to the Iranian Consulate in London to renew her passport, the officials there threatened her and conditioned the renewal of her passport upon preventing her husband and son from going to Hyde Park [for their gatherings every week]. (Kayhan Published in London newspaper).

Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi’s father intended to organize a large demonstration on the occasion of November 2 (the birthday of Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s Crown Prince), and had even prepared leaflets and announcements for that purpose.

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 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. *

Mr. Nureddin (Nader) Tavakoli Nabavi’s Death

In the afternoon of Friday, October 2, 1987, Mr. Tavakoli and his father Mohammad Ali, were shot several times in the head with a machine gun at close range in their residential apartment located in Wembley (to the northwest of London). Mr. Tavakoli’s father was killed in the living room while he himself was shot to death in the bedroom located on the upper floor of their home.

According to Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, the murder of these two individuals had been planned in advance with precision. The terrorists knew Mr. Tavakoli and his father and were aware of their situation, and knew that they were home at the time. According to the Police, at least two terrorists had entered the home. The home was not broken into and it is possible that Mr. Tavakoli’s father had invited the terrorist or terrorists into the home.

Their bodies were discovered in the apartment by Mr. Tavakoli’s brother a few hours after the murder.

According to available information, Mr. Tavakoli and his father had been directly threatened with death several times before. According to Mr. Tavakoli’s father’s close friends, “two months prior to his death, several representatives of Khomeini’s regime went to his home and offered him some money to stop his activities, which he did not accept”. (Kayhan Published in London newspaper).

During their weekly assemblies at Hyde Park, Mr. Tavakoli and his father were threatened numerous times by Hezbollahis (fanatical supporters of the Islamic Republic) who called them Kafer (infidels), anti-God, and anti-Islam. (Kayhan Published in London newspaper).

Iranian Officials’ Reaction

One day after the murders of Mr. Tavakoli and his father, a man with a middle-eastern accent contacted the office of the United Press International in London and took responsibility for the assassinations on behalf of a group called the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, and stated “we are Imam Khomeini’s soldiers. We will kill all monarchists. We will kill Reza Pahlavi”. (The Times).

According to available information, on October 3, 1987, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) announced “one should not deduce from the murder of these two Iranians that this act was carried out by Ayatollah Khomeini’s supporters”. BBC Radio also stated in its news program that “the Islamic Republic of Iran’s embassy in London has issued a communique denying the rumor that the assassination was carried out by Khomeini’s supporters, adding that it was American operatives who had perpetrated the assassinations in order to defame [and damage] the Islamic Republic”. (Kayhan Published in London newspaper).

British Officials’ Reaction

On Saturday, October 3, 1987, in the course of his investigations into the murders of Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi and his father, the head of Scotland Yard Anti-Terrorist Branch stated that there was a high probability that this assassination was carried out by an Iranian assassination team, much like the previous two assassinations (those of Bijan Fazeli, and the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Amir Hossein Amir Parviz), but that he had not found any evidence of the connection. He stated in a press conference that these assassinations constitute political murder. (The Times).

London Police were not able to make an arrest in any of the three assassination cases. The Police knew that Iranian operatives had started a network in London, as well as entry and exit routes to Great Britain, but they were not able to identify the network. (The Washington Post)

Family’s Reaction

There is no information regarding the family’s reaction to Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi’s murder.

Impact on the Family

There is no information regarding the impact of Mr. Tavakoli Nabavi’s murder on his family.

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*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.