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 About
Age 27 Nationality Iran Religion Non-believer Civil status Married Education college education Occupation professional Rank/Position — Affiliation revolutionary leftist
Case Date of execution September 10, 1986 Location Tehran, Iran Mode of execution death in custody Charges Unknown charge About this Case
The information about Ms. Sheida Behzadi Tehrani has been drawn from an interview with a relative, who was also active in the same political organization as her, in addition to the article written by Ms. Banu Saberi, published on the website of Kar on Line, the publication of the Fadaiyan Khalq Organization (Majority branch).
Ms. Behzadi Tehrani was a political activist affiliated with the Fadaiyan Khalq Organization (Majority). She studied geology in Esfahan University while being in charge of the women’s division of the Organization. She and her husband, Mr. Sa’id Tabataba’i, went underground in early 1983 and migrated to Tehran. Mr. Tabataba’i was executed in the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 in Karaj.
One of Ms. Behzadi Tehrani’s characteristics was her simplicity. She would believe anything she was told, which people around her found amusing. Ms. Behzadi Tehrani was brought up in a well-to-do and educated family. She had a daughter. When the universities closed as a consequence of the Cultural Revolution, she worked in her sister’s clinic.
The Cultural Revolution began after Ayatollah Khomeini gave a speech in March 1980 and ordered that universities be purged of all those who opposed his regime and be transformed into “learning environments” [as opposed to political forums] where “an all-Islamic curriculum” is taught. The first wave of violence began on April 15, 1980 during a speech by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [a member of the Council of the Islamic Revolution and Minister of Interior] at the University of Tabriz. Following the speech, students supporting the regime took control of the University’s central building and demanded that the “university be purged” from “pro-Shah elements and other sellouts.”
On April 18, the Council of the Islamic Revolution issued a communiqué accusing political groups of converting higher education institutions into “headquarters of discordant political activities” and naming them as obstacles to the radical transformation of the universities. The communiqué gave these groups three days (Saturday April 19 to Monday April 21) to shut down their activities in the universities. The Council stressed that the decision included libraries along with activities related to arts and sports
Serious clashes opposing the Islamist associations, sometimes supported by security forces and paramilitary groups, to leftist opposition groups started before the end of the Council’s deadline. The latter, who recruited members and had strong support in the universities, refused to evacuate. These clashes, which peaked at the end of the three-day deadline, resulted in the death of several people and the wounding of hundreds of others on university campuses around the country.
On April 21, the Islamic Republic authorities announced the victory of the Cultural Revolution and the closure of all universities in order to Islamicize the curricula. The universities remained closed for two years. One of the outcomes of the Cultural Revolution was the purging of many university professors and students based on their political beliefs.
The Fadaiyan Khalq Organization, a Marxist Leninist group, inspired by the Cuban Revolution and the urban guerilla movements of Latin America, was founded in 1971 by two communist groups opposed to the Pahlavi regime. Following the 1979 Revolution, the Organization, which had renounced armed struggle, split over their support of the Islamic Republic and of the Soviet Union. The Fadaiyan Khalq Majority considered the Islamic Republic as a revolutionary and anti-imperialist regime and supported it. After the spring of 1983, however, the Islamic Republic targeted its members solely because of their political beliefs.
Arrest and detention
Ms. Behzadi Tehrani was arrested, along with her husband and daughter, in their house in Tehran on August 3, 1986. They were transferred to the Joint Committee, also known as the Tohid prison, which the Ebrat Museum today. Ms. Behzadi Tehrani and her daughter were kept together. But before the incident that led to her death, her daughter had been returned to her family. In her 37 day detention, Ms. Behzadi Tehrani did not have visits with her family.
Ms. Saberi, who was detained in the same place at the same time as Ms. Behzadi Tehrani describes her detention: “One day… I was shocked to hear a voice saying: ‘Shirin, take your hand off my mouth, I’m tired of this.’ This was Sheida’s voice and I knew that Shirin [Sheida’s daughter] had the habit of clenching her fingers and put her hand on Sheida’s mouth. Once when they took us to take a shower, I saw the white slippers with small yellow flowers that, I knew, belonged to Sheida. I could occasionally hear Sheida’s voice that spoke with Shirin from one of the cells opposite to mine; naturally they could also hear me. But soon after that, I did not hear her voice any more. I suspected that Shirin was returned to Sheida’s or Sa’id’s family.” While in prison, Ms. Saberi also had heard that Ms. Behzadi Tehrani was kept in solitary confinement for some time.
Trial
Ms. Behzadi Tehrani was not tried.
Charges
The charges brought against the defendant are not known.
Evidence of guilt
No information is available concerning the evidence presented against the accused.
Defense
No information is available concerning Ms. Behzadi Tehrani’s defense.
Judgment
Ms. Sheida Behzadi Tehrani died at the Joint Committee in 1986. The cause of her death remains unknown to the interviewee. The authorities informed her family that she committed suicide in prison on September 10, 1986. They showed them a picture that Ms. Behzadi Tehrani had a scarf around her neck, implying that she strangled herself with a scarf. Also, in the picture, there was a medical series number on her neck, leading to the conclusion that the picture was taken after she was taken to hospital.
Sheida’s sister, who is a physician, asked the prison authorities why they did not photograph her before being taken to hospital. This sister believes that the medical series number was forged. She does not believe that Sheida committed suicide.
In the list of the victims compiled by the Fadaiyan Khalq Organization (Majority branch) it is mentioned that Ms. Behzadi Tehrani died under torture. Her husband, who was arrested with her and imprisoned until his execution, wrote in a letter, which he smuggled out of prison, that his wife has committed suicide. However, the authenticity of this letter has not been confirmed. Regarding Sheida’s death, Ms. Saberi has written: “Sa’id Tabataba’is, Sheida’s husband, who was also in prison, complained to the authorities through letters. He was eventually told: ‘Do you think we care if there is one less prisoner?’”
Ms. Behzadi Tehrani did not have any history of sickness. Her body was not returned to the family and the place of her burial is not known.
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Human rights violations in this caseThe legal context
Read about the courts, the judges, and the procedure. The courts
Special courts, known as the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunals, were set up after the February 1979 revolution. Their jurisdiction encompasses a wide array of offences ranging from association with or support of the former regime, promotion of foreign influence, and enmity with the revolution to possession, use or sales of narcotic drugs, murder, and profiteering. In the 1980s, a penal court, presided over by one judge, was created to handle some of the offenses punishable by death, such as theft or adultery. These tribunals’ decisions must be confirmed by a chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council.
The judges
Prosecutors and judges are not necessarily jurists. By 1981, the judiciary was purged of judges trained in law schools. They were replaced by seminary graduates and students, as well as by political appointees (an estimated 2000 by 1989). Since by law judges are only required to have a high school diploma and must be faithful to the Islamic Republic’s tenets, new recruits often have little formal training in the law and are chosen because of their political affiliation.
The procedure
The procedures of these ecclesiastical tribunals fail to meet the minimum guarantees for fair trial as established by international human rights instruments and by sha’ria (the Islamic system of law). In addition to executions ordered by revolutionary tribunals, extra-judicial executions are carried out, targeting dissidents and opposition leaders. In some cases, both inside and outside of Iran, these executions have been traced back to Iranian officials. It is, however, not known if in these particular cases trials are held in absentia.
Sources (Among others): Amnesty International, Law and Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, February 1980; Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, The Justice System of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1992; E/CN.4/1989/26 p.14; UNCHR, Resolution 1984/54 , Abolition of Torture - Iran - 1; 28 November 1984; Report on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Special Representative of the Commission, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, 28 January 1987. Amnesty International, A SHOCKED WORLD WATCHES IN DISBELIEF, VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1987-1990. Memoirs of Ayatollah Khalkhali, religious judge and former head of revolutionary tribunals (2001), and Ayatollah Montazeri, dismissed successor to Ayatollah Khomeini (2001). UNCH, E/CN.4/1994/50, Final report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran prepared by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, pursuant to Commission resolution 1993/62 of 10 March 1993 and Economic and Social Council decision 1993/273. E/CN.4/1994/50, 2 February 1994.
 read...
 close... Detentions, interrogations, and trials: 1981-1988
Read about the conditions in which individuals were detained, tried and sentenced. Pre-trial detentions
The accused were held, sometimes without being charged, for months or years in overcrowded prisons. During their detention, prisoners of conscience, and in particular supporters of political opposition groups or members of religious or ethnic minorities, were routinely subject to physical and psychological torture. Interrogators used torture, authorized by the post-revolutionary law of Ta’zir (Discretionary Punishment Law), to obtain confessions of guilt or to induce repentance. The line between trial and interrogation was often blurred by the fact that the same individual would function as prosecutor, interrogator and judge.
Trials
Executed detainees may or may not have been tried formally. Prisoners of conscience were often tried through a summary process that might have lasted only a few minutes. When disclosed, charges facing the defendants were often vague or based on coerced confessions. Defendants had no access to attorneys, and they might not have been allowed to defend themselves.
Appeal processes
Convicts could not appeal their sentence and were often executed shortly after their conviction. Their execution was not necessarily announced.
read...
close... Based on the available information, some or all of the following human rights may have been violated in this case:
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The right to liberty and security of the person. The right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 9.1.
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The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to change and manifest one’s religion or belief.
UDHR, Article 18; ICCPR, Article 18.1, ICCPR, Article 18.2;
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, Article 1 and Article 6.
In its general comment 22 (48) of 20 July 1993, the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee observed that the freedom to "have or to adopt" a religion or belief necessarily entailed the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views, as well as the right to retain one's religion or belief. Article 18, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert.
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The right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.
UDHR, Article 19; ICCPR, Article 19.1 and ICCPR, Article 19.2.
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The right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade union for the protection of one’s interests. UDHR, Article 20; ICCPR, Article 22.1.
The right to due process
Pre-trial detention rights
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The right to know promptly and in detail the nature and cause of the charges against one.
UDHR, Article 9(2); ICCPR, Article 9.2 and Article 14.3.a
The right to counsel of one’s own choosing or legal aid and the right to meet with one’s attorney in confidence
ICCPR, Article 14.3.d;
Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Article 1 , Article 2, Article 5, Article 6, and Article 8. -
The right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defense case.
ICCPR, Article 14.3.b; Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Article 8
The right not to be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess to guilt.
ICCPR, Article 14.3.g. -
The right not to be subjected to torture and to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
UDHR, Article 5; ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1, and Article 2.
Trial rights
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The right to a fair and public trial without undue delay.
ICCPR, Article 9.3, Article 14.1, Article 14.3.c.
The right to examine, or have examined the witnesses against one and to obtain the attendance and examination of defense witnesses under the same conditions as witnesses for the prosecution. ICCPR, Article 14.3.e.
The right to have the decision rendered in public.
ICCPR, Article 14.1.
Judgment rights
Capital punishment
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The inherent right to life, of which no one shall be arbitrarily deprived.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 6.1; Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, Article 1.1, Article 1.2.
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The right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.
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