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

Rasul Karimi

About

Age: 17
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Shi'a)
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: January 6, 1982
Location of Killing: Shiraz, Fars Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Unspecified counter-revolutionary offense
Age at time of alleged offense: 17

About this Case

The information about Mr. Rasul Karimi, son of Abbasqoli, was based on an interview by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation with a person close to him. He was only 17 years old when arrested and executed.

International laws have strictly prohibited capital punishment against those who were under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime. As a party to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran has the obligation to avoid capital punishment for an offence committed before the age of eighteen.

Mr. Karimi is one of the 12,028 individuals listed in an addendum to the Mojahed magazine (No 261), published by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization in 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. Karimi was born in Shiraz in 1964. After the revolution, he joined the sympathizers of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization and became active in the Moslem Students Association, a subordinate of the organization. He loved sports and had a strong and beautiful body. He liked to make jokes and always laughed or smiled. He went to Tehran to participate in demonstrations on June 20, 1981 and returned to Shiraz afterward. However, he was forced to the underground life when suppression and mass arrest of the Mojahedin sympathizers began. 

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’s leaders. *

Arrest and detention

According to Mr. Karimi’s brother, a friend informed his family that he was coincidentally arrested by the Revolutionary Guards in a street in Shiraz in July of 1981. He was detained in Section Six of the Guards’ prison located at the Third Army Garrison in Shiraz. He had only one visitation with his family about three months after his arrest. His morale was great during this visitation. According to people close to him, he always had a happy attitude and could laugh and joke under hardship. 

Trial

According to the interviewee, Mr. Karimi and five other sympathizers of the Mojahedin were tried on January 5, 1982. He was the youngest. According to the only person who survived among these individuals, the religious judge, a cleric named Andalib, tried each person in six to seven minutes. 

Charges

The charge brought against Mr. Karimi is not known. According to the interviewee, “apparently, being a sympathizer of a member of the Mojahedin was enough to issue a death sentence at the time.”

Evidence of guilt

According to the interviewee, authorities never referred to any evidence against Mr. Karimi during his brief detention period or after his execution. 

Defense

Mr. Karimi was younger than 18 when arrested and executed. According to the only person who survived these six individuals, during the brief trial session, Judge Andalib asked Mr. Karimi to express regret and give up information to save his life. The judge told him: “You are still a kid and your mouth smells of milk! Sit and tell everything you know, and save yourself.” In response, Mr. Karimi stood up and cried: “Death to Khomeini! And Long live the Mojahedin!”

Judgment

A court condemned five out of the group of six including Mr. Rasul Karimi to death. He was executed by firing squad, along with four others, at Chogan Garrison in Shiraz on January 6, 1982 at dawn. According to the interviewee, his body was not given to his family. Authorities told the family to go to the cemetery where a cemetery official gave them the bloody clothes of Mr. Karimi. All five individuals were buried beside each other. Whenever their mothers went to their children’s graves, Revolutionary Guards harassed and insulted them. For a long period, every grave stone that families placed was broken and soil over graves was moved by a loader. 

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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 authorities 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 fromFrance, they went toIraqand 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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