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

Ali Akbar Haqbayan

About

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

Case

Date of Killing: July 9, 1981
Location of Killing: Nur, Mazandaran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Counter revolutionary opinion and/or speech; Participating in clashes with revolutionary guards and or Bassij brothers; Unspecified offense

About this Case

The information about Mr. Ali Akbar Haqbayan, son of Ramezan Ali has been sent to Omid via an electronic form, by an individual familiar with this case. The execution of Mr. Haqbayan along with his brother, Mohammad Hashem, was published in the Kayhan and Jomhuri Eslami newspapers on August 12, 1981. Mr. Haqbayan is also one of the 12,028 individuals listed in an addendum to the Mojahed magazine (No 261), published by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization on September 6, 1985. The list includes individuals, affiliated with various opposition groups, who were executed or killed during clashes with the Islamic Republic security forces from June 1981 to the publication date of the magazine.

Mr. Haqbayan was born on June 28, 1951 in Amirabad village, in the northern province of Mazandaran. He started his political activities when he was a student and was consequently expelled from university. But he complained to the authorities and it was discovered that he had not participated in student demonstration. He was allowed to return to university and in 1975 he graduated from Tehran University with a bachelor’s degree in geo-politics. After the 1979 revolution, he became a sympathizer of the Fadaiyan Khalq Organization and joined the Minority branch when the organization split. Mr. Haqbayan taught in high schools in Qa’emshahr (in Mazandaran province).

Mr. Haqbayan was expelled in the winter of 1980. After his execution, the Ministry of Education invited him to serve and having failed to report to the Ministry’s office, he was expelled a second time. On March 18, 1986, the Committee Investigating Administrative Offenses of the Ministry of Education Office of Mazandaran Province, issued a ruling, stating that Mr. Haqbayan was dismissed due to his failure to report to the Ministry’s office and that “The Committee has received reports asserting that Mr. Ali Akbar Haqbayan is an activist of the Fadaiyan Khalq Organization and has been active inciting high school students against the divine Islamic regime and insulting the authorities of the Islamic Republic.”

Mr. Haqbayan loved photography. He traveled to different cities and took pictures. The sender of the electronic form remembers that Mr. Haqbayan “was sensitive and committed. He loved music and poetry. He believed in human rights and helped the disadvantaged with a portion of his monthly salary. At the same time, he acted hastily and had an unbendable and stubborn character. Nevertheless, he accepted some criticism of the Fadaiyan Khalq Organization. Some of Amirabad’s residents say that the best years of their lives, were the two years that they lived with Ali Akbar and his brother.”

One day, Mr. Haqbayan found a wallet with some cash on a street in Qa’emshahr. He sat in the same place for a few hours until he returned the wallet to a woman who was looking for her wallet.

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 Minority opposed the Islamic Republic and was active mainly in the political arena and the labor movement.

Arrest and detention

The revolutionary guards of Nur (another city in Mazandaran province) surrounded Amirabad village at around 7 p.m. on June 26, 1981. The arrested Mr. Haqbayan and his brother without showing them an arrest warrant. The guards transferred the two brothers to Nur. The Haqbayan family traveled to Nur to visit their sons but the officials did not allow them to do so. The two brothers were held incommunicado.

Trial

Mr. Haqbayan was tried on July 8, 1981 at Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Nur.

Charges

The collective charges against Mr. Haqbayan and his brother were announced in the newspaper as “supporting the Peykar Organization, continuous activity and participation in confrontations in Amol, Qa’emshahr, and Gonbad, propaganda for those groups that were active in the incidents in Gonbad and Kordestan, misleading youngsters, and animosity against the Islamic Republic based on deception and wrong doing.”

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

At the time of arrest, the revolutionary guards searched the Haqbayans’ house and found books and publication of the Peykar Organization that belonged to Mohammad Hashem Haqbayan. These publications were used as evidence of guilt.

Defense

No information is available on Mr. Haqbayan’s defense. The person who sent the electronic form, states that Mr. Haqbayan did not participate any confrontations and that he was not present in the cities mentioned in the charges at the time of such confrontations.

Judgment

According to the newspaper, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Nur called Mr. Ali Akbar Haqbayan as “an apostate, a corruptor on earth and an enemy of God” and condemned him to death. However, the information that the person familiar with this case sent to Omid which this individual received years after the execution, tell a different story. Based on this information, the court condemned only one of them to death; officials told the brothers that only one of them would be executed. It appears that Mr. Haqbayan believed that either him or his brother would be put to death. He stated that the Peykar publications belonged to him and that he was a sympathizer of the Peykar organization. State officials asked the brothers, which of them volunteered to die; and since Ali Akbar was the older brother and hoped to save his younger brother, he volunteered (electronic form).

After being condemned to death, Mr. Haqbayan was kept in a public ward where he told other prisoners about his court. After a few hours, on July 9, 1981, he and his brother were taken to the Kashpal forest. Mr. Ali Akbar Haqbayan was shot by firing squad in front of his brother. Then the officials told Mohammad Hashem to collect his brother’s body. As he ran towards the body, he was shot and killed (electronic form).

State officials announced the executions to the family. When returning their bodies to the family, an official told the family, “God ordered me to execute them.” Officials did not return their wills to the family. The two brothers were buried in Amirabad cemetery.

At the time of execution, Ali Akbar was 30 years old.

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