Review of an Assassination

Rooz Online:

Following the assassination attempt on the life of the deputy of Tehran Province’s Judiciary, the writings of the conservative media in Iran have one common thread: accusing the supporters of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji in the assassination. READ MORE

Rather than reviewing this event, we will review an earlier assassination attempt that bears a close resemblance to the recent one from many aspects. We are talking about the attempt on the life of Ali Razini, who was the head of Tehran Province’s Judiciary and survived the event. That attempt to kill was carried out when the judiciary was investigating the government serial killings that left several prominent politicians and writers dead. At that time, those who were pursuing the killings became demanding after the assassination.

The attempt on Razini’s life took place on the day the Ministry of Intelligence, under severe pressure from reformers who had exposed the workings of the ministry and their direct role in the crimes, accepted responsibility for the crimes against intellectuals, deflecting it to some “rogue” elements within the agency. With that acknowledgment, the conservatists’ propaganda that the killings originated from abroad was exposed and thus turned worthless. As soon as the attempt on Razini’s life was announced, the conservative media blamed the reformers for taking advantage of the weakness of the intelligence apparatus to break even with the regime.

What stood out in that battle was that the revelations that a branch of the government was itself the planner and executioner of killings was so huge that it overshadowed the propaganda of the conservatists in blaming the reformers for the killings. The result: the attempt on Razini’s life did not catch or hold the public’s attention. The issue however did return to the public forum four months later when the military prosecutors announced the detention of 12 individuals belonging to “Mahdaviyat” group. The military claimed that the group had accepted responsibility for the attempt on Razini’s life.

Seven months later the Ministry of Intelligence rather than the military announced that it had arrested “all” the members of Mahdaviat and “demolished the group completely”. The statement of the Ministry said there were 14 detainees in addition to another 20 individuals related to the event. The twenty were soon released after “due process of law”, as claimed by the Ministry. An important aspect of the Ministry’s announcement was related to 53 weapons and volumes of munitions used by the group, which added that the weapons and munitions belonged to paramilitary Baseej forces, which had been “stolen” form it. Baseej it should be noted is under direct control of the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards tasked to protect the Islamic Republic and its leaders.

It was only about a year later that some Tehran newspapers published perplexing news about Golam Reza Ameli, Razini’s killer. In them it was said that Ameli had been seriously wounded while in prison by another inmate, who suffered knife stabs in his head, neck and chest. Prior to the stabbing, the perpetrator had been taken out of the general ward where Razini’s accused assassin too was held, and kept in solitary confinement 3 times, until when he finally returned, he had reportedly stabbed Ameli, and then was taken out of the ward again for good, suggesting some form of collusion. Interestingly, this person was tried in secret, while even the chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission of Majlis, Ziayi Far, publicly complained about the way the trial was conducted. “This trial was held in secret, and we do not know why,” he is reported to have said. He further complained that even his attempts to participate in the trial were denied by judicial authorities, adding more suspicion to the case. Finally about a year later, Ameli was tried and sentenced to death for attempting to murder Ali Razini. A year after the judgment, Ameli’s sister Narges came out with more revelations. She said that her brother had managed to leave the country after the assassination attempt, but had returned to Iran voluntarily because of his repentance by giving himself up to Iranian embassy officials in the United Arab Emirates. She further lamented that while Saeed Hajarian, a reformist, who had also been a victim of an assassination, had renounced all his personal claims against his murderer, while her brother remained on the death row because of the insistence of Razini. Four weeks later, Razini too renounced all claims against Ameli, leading to prison officials announcing their approval for Ameli to take a home visitation leave, in fact indicating the leniency of the prison and judicial authorities. However, six months later, Golam Reza Ameli’s sister again revealed that despite the announcement by the judiciary, her brother had not been allowed to leave prison on a prison leave, and that he continued to be held with other non-political prisoners, against whom Ameli had complained and even gone on a hunger strike for.

At about the same time, it was reported that cleric Mohammad Hosseini Milani, from Mashhad, who had been arrested and in prison since four years earlier on charges of issuing a religious edict (Fatwa) allowing the murder of Razini, also complained about threats to his life in prison. Soon after his complaint and request to be taken out of that ward., the news came that he had died in prison because of “heart problems”. Soon came another shock.

Another member of Mahdaviat group, Mehdi Tavakoli had “disappeared”, after being released from prison. His dead body was soon found on the outskirts of Tehran. Another related event was an attempt on the life of Azam Yazdi, another released Mahdaviat member who was also Mehdi Tavakoli’s wife. With all of these and many other suspicious deaths, assassinations, and disappearances, nobody has come forward to explain why these individuals had to be “eliminated” from the scene.

While I do not intent to make any conclusion about these murders, or even to critically compare those murders with the recent one, except to indicate and remind the atmosphere in which the murders and killings of the recent past taken place and what had become of the individuals involved in them. The judgments should really come from the readers themselves.

The writer had begun a column in the daily Norooz newspaper titled “Without Judgment” at the time when many of those murders and attempts had been taking place. The writer selected an issue of the day and simply presented the facts, letting the readers make their own judgment. Following that traditions, a weekly column with the same name will be launched in Rooz.

Hossein Bastani is a seasoned journalist living in exile.