Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Ebrahim Nemuneh Khah

About

Age: 27
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Presumed Muslim
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: September 14, 1984
Location of Killing: Tabriz, Azarbaijan-e Sharqi Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Counter revolutionary opinion and/or speech

About this Case

Mr. Ebrahim Nemuneh Khah is one of the 12,028 individuals listed in an addendum to the Mojahed magazine (No 261), published by Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) on September 6, 1985. The list includes individuals, affiliated with various opposition groups, who were either executed or killed during clashes with the Islamic Republic security forces from June 20, 1981 to the publication date of the magazine.

Mr. Nemuneh Khah is also among the 282 individuals listed in a United Nations Report on The Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Note by the Secretary General), published on 13 November 1985. The report lists these individuals as "Persons who were allegedly summarily and arbitrarily executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 1984-1985."

Supplemental information about Mr. Nemuneh Khah has been sent to the Boroumand Foundation, via two electronic forms, by individuals familiar with this case. According to this information, Mr. Nemuneh Khah, son of Asadollah, was born in Tabriz in 1957. He had six brothers and one sister. Two of his brothers, Mehdi Nemuneh Khah and Asghar Nemuneh Khah, and his sister-in-law, Ms. A’zamossadat Ghaffarpur Musavi, were also killed by the Islamic Regime. Mr. Nemuneh Khah was an electrical and electronics engineering student and a sympathizer of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization.

The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) was founded in 1965. This organization adapted the principals of Islam as its ideological guideline. However, its members’ interpretation of Islam was revolutionary and they believed in armed struggle against the Shah’s regime. They valued Marxism as a progressive method for economic and social analysis but considered Islam as their source of inspiration, culture, and ideology. In the 1970s, the MKO was weakened when many of its members were imprisoned and executed. In 1975, following a deep ideological crisis, the organization refuted Islam as its ideology and, after a few of its members were killed and other Muslim members purged, the organization proclaimed Marxism as its ideology. This move led to split of the Marxist-Leninist Section of the MKO in 1977. In January of 1979, the imprisoned Muslim leaders of the MKO were released along with other political prisoners. They began to re-organize the MKO and recruit new members based on Islamic ideology. After the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the MKO accepted the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and supported the Revolution. Active participation in the political scene and infiltration of governmental institutions were foremost on the organization’s agenda. During the first two years after the Revolution, the MKO succeeded in recruiting numerous sympathizers, especially in high schools and universities; but its efforts to gain political power, either by appointment or election, were strongly opposed by the Islamic Republic leaders. *

Arrest and detention

According to the information sent by one of electronic forms, Mr. Nemuneh Khah was arrested by plain-clothes agents at Shahnaz intersection in Tabriz on June 20, 1981 at 6 p.m. He was beaten during the arrest and transferred to the Revolution Prison in Tabriz, where he was continuously interrogated and tortured for two months. The sender of the electronic form believes that he was tortured to coerce confessions.

Trial

According to the information in the electronic form, Mr. Nemuneh Khah was tried at the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tabriz in the summer of 1981. His trial lasted only for couple of minuets.

Charges

According to the information in the electronic form, the initial charge against Mr. Nemuneh Khah was “membership of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization.” However, after three years imprisonment, he was retried under the new charge of “creating an organization inside the prison.”

The validity of the criminal charges brought against this defendant cannot be ascertained in the absence of the basic guarantees of a fair trial.

Evidence of guilt

There is no information on the evidence presented against the defendant.

Defense

Based on the information in the electronic form, Mr. Nemuneh Khah was denied the right to have access to an attorney.

Judgment

According to one of the electronic forms, Mr. Nemuneh Khah was first condemned to life imprisonment by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tabriz. However, in his second trial, he was condemned to death, along with eight other prisoners that were members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization. Mr. Nemuneh Khah was executed by a firing squad on a religious holiday, Aide Ghadir, on Friday September 14, 1984 at dawn. The data in the addendum to the Mojahed magazine matches this information.

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* The exclusion of MKO members from government offices and the closure of their centers and publishing houses, in conjunction with to the Islamic Republic authorities’ different interpretation of Islam, widened the gap between the two. Authorities of the new regime referred to the Mojahedin as “Hypocrites” and the Hezbollahi supporters of the regime attacked the Mojahedin sympathizers regularly during demonstrations and while distributing publications, leading to the death of several MKO supporters. On June 20, 1981, the MKO called for a demonstration protesting their treatment by governmental officials and the government officials’ efforts to impeach their ally, President Abolhassan Banisadr. Despite the fact that the regime called this demonstration illegal, thousands came to the streets, some of whom confronted the Revolutionary Guardsmen and Hezbollahis. The number of casualties that resulted from this demonstration is unknown but a large number of demonstrators were arrested and executed in the following days and weeks. The day after the demonstration, the Islamic Republic regime started a repressive campaign – unprecedented in modern Iranian history. Thousands of MKO members and sympathizers were arrested or executed. On June 21, 1981, the MKO announced an armed struggle against the Islamic Republic and assassinated a number of high-ranking officials and supporters of the Islamic regime.

In the summer of 1981, the leader of the MKO and the impeached President (Banisadr) fled Iran to reside in France, where they founded the National Council of Resistance. After the MKO leaders and many of its members were expelled from France, they went to Iraq and founded the National Liberation Army of Iran in 1987, which entered Iranian territory a few times during the Iran-Iraq war. They were defeated in July 1988 during their last operation, the Forugh Javidan Operation. A few days after this operation, thousands of imprisoned Mojahedin supporters were killed during the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. Ever since the summer of 1981, the MKO has continued its activities outside of Iran. No information is available regarding members and activities of the MKO inside the country.

In spite of the “armed struggle” announcement by the MKO on June 20, 1981, many sympathizers of the organization had no military training, were not armed, and did not participate in armed conflict.

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