Iran’s Assassination of Chapour Bakhtiar: When Violence Prevails Over Justice
August 9, 2024
Iran’s Assassination of Chapour Bakhtiar: When Violence Prevails Over Justice
Thirty-three years ago, in August, France was gripped for days by the news of the French police's (unsuccessful) pursuit of two Iranian assassins. The men had successfully achieved their mission to kill Iranian Pro-democracy leader Chapour Bakhtiar, sentenced to death by Iran’s Supreme Leader. Bakhtiar was killed in his home in Suresne, a suburb of Paris, where he was protected by a specially trained unit of France’s security forces (CRS) day and night. In 1980, he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that claimed the life of his French neighbor and a police officer. The members of the commando team dispatched by Iran had been arrested and sentenced to life in prison, but had been released a year before Bakhtiar’s extra-judicial execution. His assassination, coming after several high profile dissidents were assassinated in Austria (1989), Switzerland (1990), Sweden (1990), France (1990 and 1991), and the escape of the killers raised multiple questions, many of which remain unanswered.
French authorities announced having discovered the bodies of Bakhtiar and his assistant, Soroush Katibeh, on August 8, thirty-six hours after the crime. This delay allowed the assassins, equipped with fake passports and visas, to reach the Swiss border. Although Swiss border police detected the fraud and detained them, they were handed over to French authorities, who inexplicably released them. A publicized chase ensued, closely followed by the media, but it was the Swiss authorities who finally arrested one of the killers in Geneva two weeks later. The brutality of Bakhtiar’s murder and the ease with which his killers escaped shocked the public.
Bakhtiar’s assassination came as no surprise to his supporters. Iranian authorities had long targeted him, a secular democrat who tirelessly advocated for the rule of law in Iran. However, the laxity in his protection, despite a growing list of targeted assassinations—including that of his close ally, Abdorrahman Boroumand (April 1991)—was deeply painful for his family and supporters. Equally troubling was the French authorities’ reluctance to pursue his killers or convict the Islamic Republic official extradited from Switzerland.
After 33 years, many questions remain unanswered due to the opacity surrounding Bakhtiar's death and those of other dissidents. France is not alone in denying victims the truth and justice they deserve. The Islamic Republic secured the release of the 1980 hit team sent to kill Bakhtiar by orchestrating a deadly wave of bombings in Paris in 1985-86. Fear of retaliation against their citizens has driven European democracies to withhold justice from victims. Except in rare cases like the Mykonos trial in Germany, the assassination of Iranian dissidents has had no consequences for the Islamic Republic.
"The impunity granted to a state that uses violence to achieve political goals has cost the lives of at least 460 Iranian dissidents worldwide," said Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran. While this policy may have prevented short-term violence, it has evidently failed to make the world safer for non-Iranians.
Watch the new Boroumand Center documentary about the life and death of Chapour Bakhtiar, a man who stood up to the Islamic Republic and paid the ultimate price for his relentless fight for democracy.
