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 About
Age — Nationality Iran Religion Non-Believer Civil status — Education — Occupation writer and/or journalist Rank/Position — Affiliation revolutionary leftist
Case Date of execution 1983 Location Tehran, Iran Mode of execution death in custody Charges Unknown charge About this Case
The information about Mr. Rahman Hatefi (penname: Heydar Mehregan) was collected from the following sources: the book entitled, The Martyrs of the Tudeh Party of Iran by the Tudeh Party Publications, an article by Mr. Sadroddin Elahi (posted on the Rooz website on July 24, 2008), an article by Mr. Soheil Asefi (posted on the Asr-e Nou website on February 7, 2009) and the Farsi Wikipedia page about Mr. Hatefi.
Mr. Hatefi was a prominent journalist and a political activist. Arrested in 1966, he spent almost one year at the Qezel Qal’eh prison (an old prison located in a northern area of Tehran City, which was destroyed in 1971 and turned into a public square). Mr. Hatefi was arrested again in 1971 and released the following year.
Mr. Hatefi became a member of the Tudeh Party in 1973. He established the Azarakhsh group (an underground group affiliated with the Tudeh party) as well as the Navid publication (affiliated with the Tudeh party) and also cooperated with Peyk-e Iran (a radio station affiliated with the Tudeh party, broadcast from West Germany and later from Bulgaria). Mr. Hatefi was also on the editorial board of the Kayhan newspaper. At the time of the 1979 Revolution, he played an important role in the publication of this newspaper. He was dismissed from his job with the newspaper during the purges in the spring of 1979.
A former colleague, Mr. Elahi, described Mr. Hatefi as “a journalist who mastered professionalism through his own experience. He knew the value of news stories and the right titles… He was brilliant and talented; he was familiar with the important minor details and every aspect of good journalism… He had no competition when it came to the design of pages, the wording of titles, and picture selection.” Mr. Asefi quotes another colleague saying: “Rahman Hatefi had a good reputation and [was] kind. He was one of a kind. He always joked and even when I was young, he greeted me, saying ‘how are you, old man?’ No one holds a grudge against him.”
The Tudeh Party of Iran was created in 1941. The Tudeh’s ideology was Marxist Leninist and it supported the former Soviet Union’s policies. The Party played a major role in Iran's political scene until it was banned for a second time following the August 19, 1953 coup. After the 1979 Revolution, the Tudeh party declared Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic regime revolutionaries and anti-imperialists and actively supported the new government. Although the Party never opposed the Islamic Republic, it became the target of its attacks starting in 1982, when most of the Party’s leaders and members were imprisoned.
Arrest and detention
Mr. Hatefi was arrested on April 27, 1983 in Tehran. He was taken to the Tohid Detention Center (previously known as the Joint Anti-Sabotage Committee).
The details of Mr. Hatefi’s detention and interrogation are not known. He was reportedly subjected to enforced disappearance in prison. According to his co-defendants, he died due to torture sometime between April 27 and July 10, 1982.
The Joint Anti-Sabotage Committee, established during the Monarchy, consisted mostly of solitary cells and was used for interrogation and torture. In the 1980’s, it was used for the same purposes but under new a name, Tohid, and was later renamed again as Ward 3000. Since the late 1990’s, it has become the Ebrat museum.
Trial
There is no information regarding this trial.
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 Mr. Hatefi’s defense.
Judgment
Mr. Hatefi was killed in 1983. He is buried at Khavaran cemetery. Most leftist persons who were executed and buried at Khavaran are buried as “unknown individuals” and the exact location of the grave is unknown to their families.
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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.
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 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.
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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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