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

Khosrow Lotfi

About

Age: 30
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Non-Believer
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: February 26, 1984
Location of Killing: Tehran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Actively opposing the Islamic Republic; Counter revolutionary opinion and/or speech; Possession of arms

About this Case

Mr. Khosrow Lotfi is among the 282 individuals listed in a United Nations Report on The Situation of Human Right in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Note by the Secretary General), published on November 13, 1985. The report lists these individuals as “Persons Who Were Allegedly Summarily and Arbitrarily Executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 1984-1985.”

The information about Mr. Khosrow Lotfi is taken from the book The Martyrs of the Tudeh Party of Iran by the Tudeh Party Publications and the book Memoirs by Mohammad Rayshahri (the Chief Judge of the time) published by the Center for Islamic Revolution Documents. Mr. Lotfi was born in Qa’emshahr (Mazandaran province) in 1953. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the mechanical engineering program at the Technical University of Tehran. Due to his political activity, under the previous regime, he was expelled from the university and sent to the military service in 1975. Before the Revolution, he was a leader of the Navid Organization (the underground organization of the Tudeh Party) in Mazandaran. During the Revolution, he had an active role in the arrest of General Riahi who was later executed. Mr. Khosrow Lotfi was executed along with nine other members of the Tudeh Party.

The Tudeh Party of Iran was created in 1941. The Tudeh Party 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 the second time following the August 19, 1953 coup. After the 1979 Revolution, the 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 government attacks in 1982 when most of the Party’s leaders and members were imprisoned.

Arrest and detention

The details of this defendant’s arrest and detention are not known. Mr. Khosro Lotfi was arrested during a meeting in Fatemi Square in Tehran on June 3, 1983.

Trial

During his trial in Tehran, there were eight people tried along with him.

Charges

According to the book Memoirs, Mr. Khosrow Lotfi was part of the first row defendants in the “prosecution of the sixth group of the Tudeh Party members who infiltrated the armed forces.” He was tried along with seven others. His charges were announced as the following:

“1. Membership in Navid underground organization

“2. Being in charge of a military group of 15

“3. Paying the membership fee of 200 to 300 Tomans

“4. Receiving wages and travel expenses of 3350 Tomans from the Party on a monthly bases

“5. Gathering intelligence and secret information from people under his command and forwarding them to Seyed Mohammad Mo’azez, his party commander

“6. Conducting Party meetings

“7. Introducing a person named Hamid to join the Party

“8. Cooperating and finding a place to hide the Organization’s weapons in the basement of a house, owned by Seyed Mohammad Mo’azez’s father

“9. Conducting street meetings with members of the Organization’s secret military section”

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

According to the book Memoirs, the evidence of guilt against the defendant is based on the statements by high ranking party members: “Mohammad Hadi Partovi and Seyed Mohammad Mo’azez, who were both higher ranking members of his Party, confirmed his charges.”

Defense

The defendant rejected some of the charges against him. According to the book Memoirs, he told the court that “he had no weapons to give to the party. He only participated in hiding the weapons of the party.”

Judgment

The court condemned Mr. Khosrow Lotfi to death. He was executed by a firing squad on February 26, 1984.

Correct/ Complete This Entry