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

Roqieh (Mansureh) Sa'adati

About

Age: 34
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam
Civil Status: Unknown

Case

Date of Killing: December, 1988
Location of Killing: Shiraz, Fars Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Fatal
Charges: Counter revolutionary opinion and/or speech; War on God, God's Prophet and the deputy of the Twelfth Imam

About this Case

Ms. Roqieh (Mansureh) Sa'adati is listed among 3,208 members and sympathizers of the People's Mojahedin of Iran Organization (PMIO) whose execution was reported by the Organization in a book entitled Crime Against Humanity. This book documents the 1988-89 mass execution of political prisoners. Additional information was drawn from the Bidaran website and the PMIO website. She was born in Shiraz. She was a school teacher. She was arrested on June 20, 1981 and detained until the end of the year. Her two brothers, who were also PMIO sympathizers, were executed by firing squads. Mohammadreza Sa'adati was executed during August, 1981 and Hesam Sa'adati was executed during the winter of 1984.

The demonstrations on June 20, 1981, were in protest of the parliament's impeachment of President Banisadr and the Islamic Republic's policy of systematically excluding the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from the country's political scene, the refusal of Ayatollah Khomeini to meet with MKO leaders and his insistence to disarm them. Until June 20, the MKO had supported the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and agreed to operate within the framework of the new political system. However, on June 20th, the MKO officially changed its policy and tried to overthrow the regime by organizing mass demonstrations all over the country. These demonstrations, which were severely suppressed and resulted in the killing of dozens of demonstrators, were followed by a wave of mass arrests and executions by the Revolutionary Guards and para-military forces that targeted not only the MKO, but all other opposition groups. The massive repression, unprecedented in the history of the Islamic Republic, legitimized the months-old state harassment and suppression of dissidents resulting in the banning of all forms of political dissent.

Arrest and detention

The circumstances of this defendant’s arrest and detention are not known. According to the MKO website, Ms. Roqieh Sa'adati was arrested for a second time during the winter of 1984. She was taken to Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz. According to the same source, she had no visitors during the last two months of her detention.

Trial

Ms. Roqyeh Sa'adati was tried and condemned to five years imprisonment. There is no information about the trial, just as there is no specific information about any such trials that condemned thousands of political prisoners to death in just a few months period. According to the available information, the Iranian authorities did not try the victims of the 1988 mass execution in a court with in the presence of a defense lawyer. The prisoners who were executed in 1988 had been questioned by a three-member special committee, composed of a religious judge, a representative of the Intelligence Ministry, and the Tehran Prosecutor. The committee questioned the leftist prisoners about their beliefs and their faith in God and religion.

The relatives of political prisoners executed in 1988 refute the legality of the judicial process that resulted in thousands of executions throughout Iran. In their 1988 open letter to then- Minister of Justice Dr. Habibi, they argue that the official secrecy surrounding these executions is proof of their illegality. They note that an overwhelming majority of these prisoners had been tried and sentenced to prison terms, which they were either serving or had already completed serving at the time they were retried and sentenced to death.

Charges

No charge was ever publicly levelled against the defendant. In their letters to the Minister of Justice (1988), and to the UN Special Rapporteur visiting Iran (February 2003), the families of the victims refer to the accusations that may have led to their execution. These accusations include being "counter-revolutionary, anti-religion, and anti-Islam," as well as being "associated with military action or various [opposition] groups based near the borders."

An edict of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini, reproduced in the memoirs of Ayatollah Montazeri, his designated successor, corroborates the reported claims regarding the charges against the executed prisoners. In this edict, Ayatollah Khomeini refers to the PMIO's members as "hypocrites" who do not believe in Islam and who "wage war against God" and decrees that prisoners who still approve of the positions taken by this Organization are also "waging war against God" and should be sentenced to death.

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

The report of this execution contains no evidence provided against the defendant.

Defense

No information is available about her defense. In their open letter, the families of the prisoners note that defendants were not given the opportunity to defend themselves in court. Against the assertion that prisoners were associated with guerrilla forces operating near the borders, the families submit the isolation of their relatives from the outside during their detention: "Our children lived under most difficult conditions. All visits were limited to 10 minutes behind a glass divider through a telephone every two weeks. Over seven years, we witnessed that they were denied access to anything that would have allowed them to establish contacts outside their prison walls." Under such conditions the families reject the claim of the authorities that these prisoners were able to engage with the political groups outside Iran.

Judgment

No specific information is available about the defendant’s execution. According to the MKO website, when her prison term was over, Ms. Roqieh Sa'adati was hanged during the mass killings of the political prisoners in Shiraz prison in December 1988. According to the same source, the authorities informed her sister after some time had passed.

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