Information regarding the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Mohammad Raji was obtained from Abdorrahman Boroumand Center’s interviews with an individual close to the family (August 13, 2023, and February 20, 2024), the report of the Forensic Medical Office of Kahrizak county, Tehran province, after an autopsy of Mr. Raji’s body (February 21, 2018), and a letter from the head of the Forensic Medicine Diagnostic and Laboratory Center of Tehran Province to the deputy prosecutor and head of the 27th district Prosecutor’s Office of Tehran. (May 30, 2018) Additional information was obtained from interviews with four eyewitness, eyewitness one (August 18, 2023), Gonabadi darvish Abbas Dehghan who was arrested on February 20 in Golestan Haftom (August 19, 2023), eyewitness number two (February 17, 2024) and eyewitness number three (February 20, 2024); as well as from the websites of IRNA (February 25, 2018), Fars News Agency (March 5, 2018), a statement by Hojjat-ul-Islam Ali Sarlak, Mr. Raji's friend who had known him for two decades and had served with him during the Iran-Iraq War, on the Didban-e Iran website (March 7, 2018), Mizan (March 7, 2018), Majzouban Noor (September 13, 2018), IranWire (February 21, 2019), Dervishnameh magazine (February 22, 2019), and Radio Farda (March 4, 5, and 6, 2018). 

Mr. Mohammad Raji, son of Ali Asghar and Akram Hesami, was born on December 22, 1961, in Aligudarz township, Lorestan province. At age 18, at the start of the Iran-Iraq war (September 1980), he volunteered to go to the front. A pro-government cleric  who served under Mr. Raji during the war, stated that within a year, Mr. Raji's bravery and effectiveness as a "line-breaker" (the volunteer unit that is the front of the attack that opens the way for the following troops) led to his rapid promotion. He quickly rose to command various battalions and operations, eventually attaining the rank of IRGC commander. Mr. Raji was injured many times during the war, but his most serious injury was caused by chemical weapons, which destroyed a large part of his lung, requiring him to use oxygen for a time (Hojjat-ol-Islam Ali Sarlak, Didbaneh Iran - March 7, 2018). However, over the years, Mr. Raji regained his health and became an athlete. He was fond of wrestling and climbing and was very fit (Interview with a person close to the family - August 13, 2023). 

According to a person close to the family, Mr. Raji was very ethical and, therefore, after seeing the IRGC’s "inhumane" behavior and corruption, he gradually became "disheartened" and requested to be discharged from the service, but his request was denied. He stopped going to work from 2001 until finally, in 2004, his early retirement was approved. (Interview, August 22, 2023) After retirement, he and his family returned to his place of birth, Maza’ehabad village, in Aligudarz. They took up agriculture, so much so that he was named model farmer of the year (Hojjat ol-Islam Ali Sarlak, Dideban Iran, March 7, 2018).

Mr. Mohammad Raji, who had a "God-seeking" spirit and was looking for "transcendence," became acquainted with Nematollahi Gonabadi Darvishes and practices around 2010, and joined them after some research and participation in their meetings. After Mr. Raji became a darvish, various people – from the representative of the Supreme Leader to the top commanders of the IRGC – went to see him to convince him to leave the Gonabadis, blaming them for his parting ways with the IRGC. However, Raji’s retirement and actively distancing himself from the IRGC took place six years before he joined the  Darvish Order. (Interview with a person close to the family - August 13, 2023). In this regard, Hojjat-ol-Islam Sarlak also acknowledged Mr. Raji’s "spiritual tendencies," and the changes he underwent from 2003 onwards. He said in a speech “we talked to him many times, but unfortunately, Mr. Raji had chosen his path.” (Hojjat ol-Islam Ali Sarlak, Dideban Iran - March 7, 2018) 

Ne’matollahi Gonabadi Darvishes and the history of their suppression in the Islamic Republic (1) 

Dervishian or Sufism is a spiritual aspect of Islam that emphasizes each person's inner relationship with, and love for, God. There are different opinions about the origin of Sufism. Some consider it an Aryan reaction against Islam, some consider it to be derived from Brahmanism and Buddhism in India, some relate it to the wisdom of the Greeks, and others identify Christianity and Manichaeism as the origin of Sufism. In addition to all these beliefs, some people consider Sufism to have originated as a school of Islam and the teachings of the Qur’an. 

The Nematollahi lineage is one of the old Sufi sects. The word Nematollahi is taken from the name of the great eighth-century Iranian mystic, "Seyed Nureddin Shah Ne’matollah Wali," and after him, this path and its followers became known as "Ne’matollahi.” Currently, the Nematollahi lineage of SoltanAliShahi Gonabadi (known as Gonabadi Darvishes) is one of Iran's most populous Sufi lineages. 

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, many religious minorities were persecuted and oppressed. The Nematollahi Gonabadi Order was not exempted from this rule, even though they are considered to be among the Twelve Imam Shiites. A year after the revolution, in 1980, their Hosseinieh (a congregation hall for Twelver Shia Muslim commemoration ceremonies) was set on fire in Tehran. Then, in 1980, the tomb of one of their elders in Shahreh Ray was destroyed by the order of Sadegh Khalkhali. However, in 1981, by order of Ayatollah Khomeini, Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani, the head of the central Islamic Revolutionary Courts, issued a letter entitled “The Security of darvish elders and their Sites.” After the death of Khomeini, the government’s scrutiny of the spiritual group continued. In 1992, Saied Emami, the operational head of the serial killings team in the Ministry of Intelligence, mentioned the Darvishes as "one of the four dangerous groups for the system," and warned "Hezbollah forces" against the danger of joining this sect. 

Haj Ali Tabandeh Mahboob AliShah (2), Ne'matollahi SoltanAliShahi Gonabadi Darvish Leader, died suspiciously due to cardiac arrest in December 1996 at the age of 51. Before his death, he had been pressured many times by the forces of the Ministry of Intelligence; the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence asked him to leave the country, but they were met with his continued refusal. Dr. Noor Ali Tabandeh, a jurist and lawyer, assumed leadership of the Nematollahi Gonabadi lineage in 1996. His political history before the revolution as a nationalist and his activities and ideas after the revolution, which led to his imprisonment in 1990, significantly intensified the pressure on Gonabadi Darvishes. 

Non-payment of Shariah funds to (religious) sources and authorities, lack of belief in the Guardianship of the Jurist, the organized and extensive structure of the Gonabadi Darvishes in different cities and countries, and the significant increase in their population since the 1980s are among the reasons for the pressure on this dervish lineage. Since 2006, when Ahmadinejad came to power, the confrontation between the government and Gonabadi Darvishes has become more public, in the name of combating "fake mysticism." Following Ayatollah Khamenei’s multiple warnings regarding the promotion and expansion of “fake mysticism,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appointed a group for the planning and combatting “deviant organizations.” It was at this point that successive destruction and defacement of dervish shrines began in the cities of Qom (2006), Borujerd (2007), Chermahin (2008), Kish (2008), Isfahan (2009), Karaj and Bandar Abbas. 

Although Dr. Tabande was not involved in direct political activity during his leadership, he encouraged his followers to engage in civil resistance and defense against oppression. It was during his leadership that the dervish civil society became very cohesive, and the dervishes became equipped with their own media outlets (2005). They were arrested and had “security” charges leveled against them.

The events of Golestan Haftom Street in 2018 

Following the nationwide protests of December 2017, the Ministry of Information arrested four Gonabadi dervish activists on December 30th at Dey Hospital. After this arrest, several dervishes, in support of their fellow believers, started a round-the-clock sit-in in front of Evin prison and demanded their release. The judicial authorities released the four dervishes after ten days, when the families of prisoners from other wards also began to protest.

A few days after the happy end to this sit-in, at the end of January, several members of the Basij set up a checkpoint near Noor Ali Tabande's house in Tehran, which was immediately removed due to the massive protest of Darvishes in the area in front of his residence. However, the rumors about the government's intention to arrest Noor Ali Tabandeh led to concern and the continued presence of Darvishes in the area. On February 4, 2018, this gathering led to clashes between motorcycle security units and dervishes. Following the clashes, in a message, Noor Ali Tabande asked his supporters to stay calm and leave the area. The commander of the Tehran police forces also announced in a statement that neither the security forces nor the prosecutor's office had any intention of arresting any dervishes. Darvishes also left the place after presenting flowers to the neighbors and area residents. 

However, the activity of plainclothes security forces around the leader of the Darvish's residence and two dervishes continued. Two of the dervish elders, one of whom was named Nematollah Riahi, were arrested. In the afternoon of February 19, 2018, a few dervishes gathered in protest in front of stationhouse 102 of the IRGC, which was where Hossein Rahimi was being detained. Without warning, the government forces blindly and aimlessly shot dervishes and ordinary people with paintballs and shotguns to disperse the crowd, regardless of the congestion in the area and the existing traffic. Then, special forces quickly descended upon Seventh Golestan Street as the Darvishes gathered there. Between around 8:00 to 10:00 p.m., with the rush of the guards and plainclothes agents, gunshots were heard in the area. A bus drove towards the agents, after which, according to official sources, three of the agents were killed. Agents forced a man named Mohammad Salas from the Darvishes, who had been arrested before the bus incident and had an injured head and face, to confess on camera to being the bus driver. He was tried and executed very quickly. 

Around midnight, security agents and the special guards closed all roads leading to Seventh Golestan and surrounded the Darvishes. Around 2 a.m., police officials and security agents met with Dr. Tabandeh and a group of dervishes. They agreed that the riot police would leave the area and the dervishes would clean up the neighborhood and disperse. Despite the promises, the siege continued. At around three in the morning, several plain clothes and Basij forces started attacking the Darvishes by throwing tear gas. Some took refuge in the neighbors' houses, but plainclothes agents entered the houses and attacked the dervishes with sticks, clubs, swords, and whatever they had in their hands. Many wounded and injured dervishes, some sources have said 400 plus, were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment anywhere from six months to seven years. Dr. Noor Ali Tabandeh was placed under house arrest until his death (January 3, 2019). 

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.

Mr. Mohammad Raji’s Arrest

Beginning February 3rd, Mr. Mohammad Raji attended the Darvish protest rallies at Seventh Golestan Street in the Pasdaran district of Tehran. According to relatives, he only returned home at night's end for a few hours to rest, and sometimes he even stayed at Seventh Golestan for the night. 

Mr. Raji was arrested following an attack by the security forces on February 19, 2018. On the afternoon of that same day, he and several darvishes had gathered to protest in front of the police station 102, in Pasdaran Avenue, and were wounded in the head area. Mr. Raji attended this gathering because he was worried about an elderly darvish, whose heart was functioning with the aid of a battery and for whom stress was life threatening. (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023).

Some people who had medical knowledge took care of the wounded and bandaged Mr. Raji's head as well. (Interview with Abbas Dehghan, August 19, 2023). According to the person who took care of Mr. Raji's head wound, around 6 P.M. on February 19th, after the incident at the station house, Mr. Raji had breathing problems due to inhalation of tear gas. He was also bleeding from his forehead due to the injury, but he was not hurt anywhere else on his body. This witness last saw Mr. Raji around 3:30 or 4:00 A.M. at the intersection of Paydar Fard and Seventh Golestan Streets. (Interview with third eyewitness, February 20, 2024). Mr. Raji’s daughter last saw him on the ground around 5 A.M., after the attack by plainclothes officers in the middle of the night, and before his arrest. She said that he was alive and moving and his face was unharmed. (Radio Farda, March 4, 2018).

Mr. Raji’s Death 

According to the autopsy report, Mr. Raji died some time after his arrest on February 20, 2018. (Kahrizak medical examiner report, February 21, 2018) The exact time and place of Mr. Raji's death is not known. Eyewitnesses have also reported seeing photos of Mr. Raji’s body before February 23rd, 2018. 

According to Mr. Raji's daughter, on March 3, 2018, someone contacted their family from the Shapur district investigation unit and asked them to bring Mohammad Raji’s photos and identification documents to match the information of the arrested individuals. They did not inform the family about Mr. Raji's death. After a relative went to the station house, they told him that someone was bleeding and in a coma due to injuries, and that they wanted to match Mr. Raji's photo with said person. Finally, on March 4th, they informed the family that, based on the identification, Mr. Mohammad Raji had died (Radio Farda, March 4, 2018). However, based on the available information, at the time of Mr. Raji's arrest, his identity card and national card were in his pocket and were later received by the family from Evin prison. (Radio Farda, March 4, 2018, and interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023)However, according to a Gonabadi Darvish who was interrogated in the IRGC Sarallah base during the first two or three days after his arrest in Seventh Golestan (between February 20th thru 24th), photos in plastic forensics zip-lock bags were put in front of him for identification purposes. He recognized Mr. Raji's bloody face in one of the photos (Interview with eyewitness one, August 18, 2023).  

Another arrested Gonabadi darvish, Mr. Abbas Dehghan, saw pictures and documents related to the death of Mohammad Raji in the Shapur district investigation unit before February 28th. According to Mr. Dehghan, a person named Mohammad Shahriari, head of the Tehran Criminal Prosecutor's Office, dragged him to a room and put some photos in front of him for identification. Among those photos, he showed him  medical papers and a picture of Mr. Raji's body and said that this person died on the night of the Seventh Golestan incident. According to research conducted by the family, Mr. Raji was taken to Baqiyatullah Hospital at 8:30 A.M. on February 20th, and according to a source in the hospital, he could not be resuscitated (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023). 

According to the report of the Chief Forensic Medical Examiner of Kahrizak, dated February 21, 2018, Mr. Raji was handed over to the Forensic Medical Examiner without clothing or identification. In the description of the autopsy, the date of Mr. Raji’s death is stated as February 20, 2018. One of the key points of this report is that there were no signs of hospital injections and no injuries or other signs in the neck area indicating hospital resuscitation efforts. This statement contradicts the statements made four months later by the forensic examiner in the letter dated May 30, 2018, to the deputy prosecutor and head of the 27th District Prosecutor's Office of Tehran, regarding the presence of bruises and dried-up blood on Mr. Raji's neck, which "seems to be caused by the hospital's actions to resuscitate the patient."

In addition, the February 21st autopsy report describes various injuries to Mr. Raji’s body on the face and head, "Also, in addition to a 5 cm long laceration above the left eyebrow, a wide laceration along with the crushing of the nasal and paranasal bones, bruises around the left and right eye, a 2 centimeter laceration along with surrounding bruises on the outer corner of the right eye, an abrasion on the front of the right ear, a 4 cm long laceration on the right of the cranium, an approximately 8 cm long crescent-shaped laceration on the right temple, a 10 cm irregular laceration on the left temple accompanied by two other laceration lines connected to it, each of which is 3 cm long, a circular-shaped skin laceration with a diameter of 3 cm is seen on the posterior part of the head and a star-shaped laceration is seen on the left side of the upper forehead area. There were no perforations seen under the lacerations on his face and head. There were no teeth in his mouth. There were no signs of bruising seen on the mucous membranes of the lips and tongue. There were no signs of injury seen on the neck.”

On the front, note that “two long rail line bruises on the right side of the abdomen, five welt-shaped black spots on the right side of the chest and right armpit area, three rail line black spots on the left side of the abdomen, two linear scratches on the left side of the chest and armpit area, three striped bruises on the posterior area of the left shoulder, a striped patterned scratch similar to that of a jagged hard object under the left shoulder blade, two abrasions on the inner side of the right shoulder blade, an abrasion on the right side of the behind, an abrasion on the left side of the behind, two abrasions along with a rail line bruise on the posterior area of the left thigh, a very superficial cut on the outer upper area of the left rump, about 8 cm long, and a very long shallow cut in the upper area of the right rump, 15 cm long, were seen.”

In the examination of the upper limbs, the forensic report mentions extensive blackening and abrasions in the areas of Mr. Raji’s arm, elbow, forearm, fingers of the left and right hand, thigh, knee, left and right leg, and several cuts by an "unspecified object" including "a deep cut approximately 7 cm in length in the lower posterior region of the left forearm that cut the muscles" and a deep cut in the upper part of the right leg that "sliced the muscles from the side of the bone."

In this autopsy, it was also mentioned that the seventh rib on the right side and the seventh and eighth ribs on the left side were broken, there was extensive dried-up blood in the hilum of the lungs and the upper thyroid cartilage horn, but the lungs were not torn, crushed, or shrunken. Internal organs, including the heart, stomach, liver, spleen, and intestines, were healthy; the spinal vertebrae, skull bone and lamellar bone were not broken, and the airways were open.

The forensic pathologist of Kahrizak was unable to determine the cause of Mr. Raji's death. In the medical examiner letter dated May 30 2018, the forensic examiner of Tehran province pointed out that the toxicological tests were negative, there was nothing specific in the pathology, and determined the cause of death as "multiple physical injuries due to a hard, unidentified object hitting all parts of the body.” (The medical examiner’s letter to the prosecutor and the autopsy report of the forensic pathologist of Kahrizak are available in the archives of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center).

On March 5th, the day after the family was informed of Mr. Raji's death, as the authorities exerted pressure and haste, Mohammad Raji's body, accompanied by his brother, was taken to Aligudarz for burial and handed over to the security forces. The security forces, secretly and without the knowledge of the family, took the body to Aligudarz Martyrs Cemetery that night at half past two in the morning. Finally, Mr. Raji's body was buried before sunrise, without any rituals, in the presence of some relatives; Mr. Raji's wife and their two daughters had been alerted about the transfer of the body by an acquaintance. Despite the family's extensive follow-up and the preparation of the bail amount, the judicial authorities did not allow Mr. Raji's son, who was in custody at the time, to attend his father's funeral (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023). 

According to available information, before his death, Mr. Mohammad Raji occasionally worried about his safety. Although he usually did not give specific information about threats to his family, in order not to worry them, he had mentioned that he had received advice about his desire to become a dervish that had "smelled like threats." According to a person close to the family, Mr. Raji was taken to the hospital in 2016 (about a year before his death) due to a snake bite in Aligudarz. Still, he refused to spend the night alone in the hospital, and after a few hours, despite the doctor's prescription to stay in the hospital, he returned home. He explained the reason for his return home as follows: "They will come, pour something into my head and kill me, and then say that I died due to a snake bite." Also, two weeks before the night of the Seventh Golestan incident, in a phone call with Mr. Raji, Commander Ruhollah Nouri, the deputy chief of Tehran’s ground forces, told him that they were a bona fide force and they wanted him to return to work. Mr. Raji replied that he had work to do and could not. Ruhollah Nouri replied: "Well, go and do your work, but please don't go to the Seventh Golestan" (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023).

Officials' Reaction 

A few days after his arrest, authorities made a statement about Mr. Raji's death but did not mention his name. Responding to a reporter on February 25th, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the then-first deputy head of the Judiciary, said: "When people stand against people and the police in the street, there is no exception, it is likely that people and the police would stand against them. It is likely that those who disobey the law will be treated in the same manner during detention. I heard that someone died, but I don't know if he was among the rioters or not. He died in the hospital" (IRNA, February 25, 2018). Ten days later, Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, the prosecutor of Tehran, without mentioning Mr. Mohammad Raji's name, said: "In the very first days when these riots occurred, the head of the criminal prosecution reported that someone died in the clashes and was taken to the hospital and the identity of this person was not known. At the same time, we announced it to both the Ministry of Interior and the police, but because he did not have an identity card, he could not be identified until the last day or two." The Tehran prosecutor also denied the issue of death during interrogation (Mizan, March 7, 2018). The head of the criminal prosecution referred to by this judicial official, Mohammad Shahriari, is the same person who told Abbas Dehghan during  interrogation: "Mr. Raji was one of the noble commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and he went to Seventh Golestan to suppress darvishes, but there he was confronted by his son and his son killed his father due to his beliefs” (Interview with Abbas Dehghan, August 19, 2023). 

Regarding this matter, another Gonabadi dervish said: "During the interrogation, Ali (Mohammed Raji's son) and I were close, and I could hear how much the intelligence agents had pressured him to obtain a forced confession, so much so that he was quite unwell for a few days after the interrogation" (Interview with eyewitness number two, February 17, 2024). Mr. Raji's son told his family in one of his phone calls from prison that he had been force-fed something and was not at all well and did not have presence of mind (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023). 

On March 4th, the security forces called Raji's family and told them that "an autopsy has been performed, the results will be available in two months, and no morgue in Tehran will accept the body." Then, as the body was being transferred by ambulance to Aligudarz, they threatened the family and said that if they didn’t agree to Mr. Raji’s being buried at night, the body would never be returned to them (Radio Farda, March 6, 2018). 

According to a person close to the family, though the commander of the Aligudarz IRGC had told the family that Mr. Raji's body could be picked up at 8 A.M.,the security forces took the body secretly from the morgue in the middle of the night and transferred it to Aligudarz Martyrs Cemetery for burial. They told the family that they had orders to bury Mr. Raji that night without ceremonies. According to a person close to the family, there were agents everywhere, as if martial law had been established in that small town. The person who filmed the moment Mr. Raji's body was taken away from the morgue, and informed the family about it, was reportedly detained for several days (Interview,  August 13, 2023).  

After the burial of Mohammad Raji, the security forces erased the words "Darvish," "Martyr," and " Hu 121 " from his tombstone, which showed Mr. Raji's passion for the Darvish Order. According to his family, Mr. Raji's combat information record was also removed from the combat information website (Majzoubaneh Noor – September 13, 2018). Mr. Raji's life insurance was also blocked from being paid to his family (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023).

After the death of Mr. Mohammad Raji, the representative of the Supreme Leader and some other people connected to the government went to visit his family. According to one of the relatives, they wanted to "cover-up" Mr. Raji's death and claim that because he had been a member of the IRGC, it was the Darvishes who killed him. They indirectly tried to bribe the family into staying silent by saying things  such as ‘Your children need jobs and livelihoods.’ Stringent security measures accompanied the ceremony for the first anniversary of Mr. Raji’s death. Many plainclothes officers stood in front of the mosque and they installed cameras in the trees in front of Mr. Raji's gravesite. According to one of the relatives, the security forces did not prevent the anniversary gathering, but they sent a message to everyone participating and summoned them. He said they even fired one of Mr. Raji's old colleagues who had spoken at the anniversary (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023). 

On August 31, 2018, the authorities arrested the lawyers Mr. Raji's family had hired to file a complaint over his death. The lawyers were released on bail on September 6th (Majzoubaneh Noor – September 13, 2018). 

Family’s Reaction 

According to a statement by one of Mr. Raji's children, before his arrest, at approximately 5 A.M. on Seventh Golestan Street, she saw her father lying on the ground but he was able to move and his face was intact. Without a doubt, he was alive before he was arrested; he had raised his hand and turned from side to side. 

Mr. Raji's family wants to know where he was taken during the three hours between his arrest and his transfer to the hospital, or what happened to him that led to so many injuries and, ultimately, his death. Also, regarding the matter of Mr. Raji being “unidentified,” the Raji family members say, “On the night of the conflict, Mr. Raji's identity card and national card were in his pocket. We later received these documents from Evin prison." (Radio Farda, March 4, 2018, and interview with a person close to the family - August 13, 2023). According to one of the relatives, security agents had tried to secretly bury Mr. Raji on the way from Tehran to Aligudarz, they attempted to stop the ambulance carrying the body, and  take it from the family. Mr. Raji's younger brother, who was a member of the Revolutionary Guards, prevented them by threatening that "if you want to take the body from me, I will send all these photos (that I took of the body) to international networks." In the end, however, the burial of Mohammad Raji was carried out at night without the consent of the family. 

After Mohammad Raji’s burial, his family tried to follow-up on the issue of his death with the hospital, and through legal means. They hired two lawyers, Mr. Farrokh Foruzan and Mr. Arash Keykhosravi; however, according to a person close to the family, there has been no progress with the case, even after the lawyers’ release, the case remains open due to a lack of evidence.

It has also been said that after Mr. Raji’s death, one of his brothers, who used to be a member of the IRGC, ended his activity in that organization. (Interview with a person close to the family - August 13, 2023). 

Impacts on family 

Mr. Raji's death had a significant impact on his  family. According to a person close to the family, Mr. Raji's son was in terrible condition not only mentally but also physically, after his release from prison, one year after the Seventh Golestan incident. He was having severe fevers, and after conducting many tests, the doctors said that due to the drugs given to him in prison, his immune system had weakened so much that he would easily develop a severe infection after every little germ. Mr. Raji's daughter has also suffered severe nervous attacks since her father’s death, and despite the passage of several years, she is still unable to cope with the loss of her father (Interview with a person close to the family, August 13, 2023).

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1- In the preparation of the section related to "The Ne'matollahi Gonabadi Dervishes and the history of their repression in the Islamic Republic" and "The Seventh Golestan incident" sources that were referenced were Safarnevis website (February 4, 2018), Kayhan newspaper (June 18, 1980, p. 6), file of Saeed Emami’s speech at Bu’ali Hamedan University (Center’s Archive), Human Rights in Iran website (May 14, 2019), Sarat Analytical News Base (April 24, 2012), Mohsen Kadivar's website (February 21, 2018), BBC: Chronology of Dervish Conflict and Government (February 20, 2018), BBC: Noor Ali Tabandeh from rejecting the theory of the guardianship of the theologian to confinement in Golestan Haftom (December 24, 2019), Iran Wire (January 9, 2018), BBC (January 9, 2018), Zamane Radio (February 4, 2018), RadioFarda (February 4, 2018), BBC (February 4, 2018), Deutsche Welle (February 5, 2018), Tabnak (February 4, 2018), YouTube International TV (December 23, 2021), RadioFarda (January 19, 2018), Iran Wire (February 21, 2019), HRANA (March 1, 2019) and an interview with Abbas Dehghan (August 19, 2021) and an eyewitness (August 18, 2023), as well as research conducted at the Boroumand Center. 

 2- Dr. Nur Ali Tabandeh, a well-known jurist and lawyer, assumed the leadership of the Ne'matollahi Gonabadi darvishes in 1996. Before the revolution, he was politically close to the nationalist religious movement. After the revolution, in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan, he held positions such as Minister of Justice, Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance. In 1990, he was one of the 90 people who criticized the "absolute rule of monopoly, suffocation and perversion" in a letter addressed to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and he spent eight months in prison for signing this letter. He was also a member of the "Community to Defend the Freedom and Sovereignty of the Iranian Nation" committee, which a group of nationalist religious activists, including Ezzatullah Sahabi, Mehdi Bazargan, and Yadullah Sahabi, formed. Tabande had written articles in this magazine rejecting the theory of guardianship of the theologian.