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

Leila Mada'en

About

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

Case

Date of Killing: November, 1988
Location of Killing: University Blvd, Zahedan, Sistan Va Baluchestan Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Enforced disappearance
Age at time of alleged offense: 17

About this Case

Ms. Mada’en was 17 years old and was a brave, energetic, and extremely kind woman who lived a simple life. She was about 10 when his brother’s execution, seven days after his arrest, inflicted a great shock on her entire family. From that moment on, the Behesht Zahra Cemetery and the graves of her three brothers became her haunt.

Information regarding the disappearance and murder of Ms. Leila Mada’en, daughter of Zahra Ramezanpur Delshad and Abbas Mada’en, was obtained from an interview conducted with her sister, Ms. Farah Mada’en (October 11, and November 10, 2021; April 2, and June 3, 2009) and Pezhvak-e Iran website (Spring 2010). Additional information about this case was obtained from Jomhuri Eslami newspaper ( April 24, and September 27, 1981); Tasnim News Agency ( September 4, 2017; June 24, 2019); Fars News Agency ( July 14, 2020); ISNA News Agency ( November 19, 2000; August 9, 2002); Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021); Pezhvak-e Iran website (July 5, and September 22, 2021); Begoo Nah (“Say No”) News Network ( August 10, 2019); Be Yad Aar Telegram Channel (July 3, 2021); the book Na Zistan, Na Marg (“Neither Living Nor Dying”) by Iraj Mesdaghi, Volume 4, second printing (2006-07); Payam-e Emrooz Magazine, Volume 34 (October-November 2008); Radio Farhang (November 23, 2020); Voice of America YouTube Channel, Safheye Akhar program (November 27, 2015); Radio Zamaneh website (July 29, 2016); Jamaran website (July 24, 2013); Tarikh Irani website (“Iranian History”) website (October 12, 2013); Asr Iran website ( August 17, 2006); Ali Arabshahi Facebook Page (June 17, 2013); and the book Shonud-e Ashbah, by Reza Golpur Chamarkuhi, Volume 1 (October 22, 2002).

Ms. Mada’en was born on April 18, 1971 and had six brothers and two sisters, and was the family’s eighth child. Her father was an employee of the Unified Bus Company and they lived a life of financial hardship. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, April 2, 2021; Pezhvak-e Iran, Spring 2010). Ms. Mada’en was a senior in high school. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021).

Three of Ms. Mada’en’s brothers were executed in 1981, 1982, and 1985. Their execution, especially that of Mr. Loqman Mada’en who did not believe in armed struggle and was executed less than a week after his arrest, had a great effect on her family. The psychological pressure resulting from her brothers’ execution and the imprisonment of her father and other brothers for several years, had made life very difficult for her. From 1985 forward, she would regularly go to Behesht Zahra Cemetery to visit her brothers’ graves. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, April 2, and June 3, 2009). She had told her family of her intention “to avenge” her brothers’ death, and had talked about leaving Iran and joining the MKO. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, April 2, and June 3, 2009; Be Yad Aar Telegram Channel, July 3, 2021; Pezhvak-e Iran, Spring 2010). (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021).

From 1988 on, Ms. Mada’en spent most of her time at the home of the Nuri family, whose children were MKO supporters. She probably met this family at Behesht Zahra Cemetery. The family’s eldest son, Mr. Ezzatollah Nuri, tried to join the MKO’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq in the summer of 1988. After a while, he contacted his family and informed them that he had actually arrived there. Mr. Nuri’s mother then established contact with a number of MKO supporters, members, and family members, and got them to trust her to send them to Iraq. According to available information, almost none of the families of the individuals who tried to get their children to Iraq in this fashion have any news of them. Ms. Mada’en tried to get herself to Camp Ashraf in the same fashion. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, April 2, and June 3, 2009; Pezhvak-e Iran, Spring 2010). According to Ms. Mada’en’s sister, Ms. Nuri’s family contacted MKO members at Camp Ashraf years later, and realized that Mr. Ezzatollah Nuri had never gotten to the Camp. It is not clear where he was when he contacted his family. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021). There is no information available regarding Mr. Nuri’s fate.

According to her sister, Ms. Mada’en was brave, energetic, studious, extremely kind, sensitive, and lived a simple life. From approximately 1987, after becoming acquainted with the families of executed MKO members, she became interested in Islam and observed religious rites and tenets such as praying and wearing Hijab, in a very serious way. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, June 3, 2009).

The Mojahedin Khalq Organization

The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) was founded in 1965. This organization adapted the principles 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 a 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 to 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. *

Ms. Leila Mada’en’s Disappearance and Death

According to available information, Ms. Mada’en and several other people, including two boys from the Nuri family and one of her friends, Zahra Niakan, tried to leave the country in late July 1988 from Iran’s eastern border in Sistan and Baluchestan Province with Ms. Nuri’s help, and join MKO’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq. They stayed in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province for a while. Ms. Mada’en stayed for approximately five days with one of their family friends in that city, who lived on Daneshgah Street. It was through this friend that Ms. Mada’en’s family found out in late summer or early fall of 1988 that she was in Zahedan. Ms. Mada’en realized in Zahedan that the group with whose help she wanted to leave Iran and join the MKO was connected to the Islamic Republic of Iran operatives, although it is not clear when she found out. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, and November 10, 2021; and April 2, and June 3, 2009). A little later, in October or November 1988, one of the people accompanying Ms. Mada’en, Ms. Zahra Niakan, contacted her home after finding out about the execution of her brother, Hossein Niakan. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, and November 10, 2021; and April 2, and June 3, 2009). Ms. Mada’en contacted the Niakan family home (who were also their family friends) as well in mid-November 1988, after her family found out about the killing of her brother-in-law’s (her sister’s husband’s) brother, Manuchehr Rezai Jahromi. During the phone call, Ms. Mada’en, who liked Mr. Rezai Jahromi, became extremely upset when she confirmed that he had been killed and was crying incessantly. It is not clear how Ms. Niakan and Ms. Mada’en found out about the execution of their family members. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021). This was how Ms. Mad’en’s family made sure that she was alive until approximately December 1988.

Ms. Mada’en was 17 years old when she was kidnapped and killed by agents of the Ministry of Information. Ministry of Information agents stated that the Ministry’s policy regarding the kidnapping and physical elimination of MKO supporters went back to the mid-1980’s, but no one was ever tried for these murders.

According to Ms. Mada’en’s family friends, she was under close surveillance by people suspected of being Ministry of Information agents during her stay in Zahedan. She tried to flee Zahedan on at least one occasion but she did not succeed. Ms. Mada’en’s family has no information about the fate of their child since December 1988. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021; and April 2, and June 3, 2009; Be Yad Aar Telegram Channel, July 3, 2021; Pezhvak-e Iran, Spring 2010).

Ms. Mada’en’s family saw her for the last time in mid-July 1988. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021; and June 3, 2009).

A woman who identified herself as Mojahed (an MKO member) and a friend of Ms. Mada’en’s, went to her sister on one occasion in November 1988, and tried to convince her and her husband to accompany them to MKO’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq. Ms. Mada’en’s sister turned down the proposal. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, June 3, 2009). Around January 1989, that same woman went to Ms. Mada’en’s family home once again in order to talk to her mother and her other sister and brothers about taking them to Camp Ashraf. Ms. Mada’en’s older brother threw the woman out of the house. (Boroumand Center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021). It is not clear whether Ms. Mada’en was alive or not at the time.

According to available information, Ms. Mad’en was an MKO supporter who disappeared within the framework of a program within the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Information called Al-Ghadir, designed to kidnap and kill MKO members and supporters. There is no information regarding her and her fellow travelers who had fallen into the trap the Ministry of Information had set up for them to join the MKO in Iraq. Available investigations and research shows that Ms. Mada’en and many others that were kidnapped under this program, never reached MKO’s camps in Iraq. A few months prior to Ms. Mada’en’s kidnapping, thousands of prisoners, including members of the MKO, who were considered to be “maintaining their [ideological] stance”, had been executed in the course of the Summer of 1988 mass killings. (2) According to available information and the statements of Iranian officials, it is possible that Ms. Mada’en and others who disappeared were killed on the basis of that same logic. (Boroumand Center research).

Background of Extrajudicial Killings by the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of politically motivated violence in Iran and around the world. Ever since the 1979 Revolution, Islamic Republic operatives inside and outside the country have engaged in kidnapping, disappearing, and killing a large number of individuals whose activities they deemed undesirable. The actual number of the victims of extrajudicial killings inside Iran is not clear; however, these murders began in February 1979, and have continued during the existence of the Islamic Republic both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has identified over 540 murders outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. (3)

Opponents of the Islamic Republic have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic in various ways outside Iran, in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, India, and Pakistan in Asia; Dubai, Iraq, and Turkey in the Middle East; Cyprus, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain in Europe; and the United States across the Atlantic Ocean. In most cases, not much information has been published about these murders and local officials have not issued any arrest warrants. Documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm, however, the theory of state committed crimes. In certain cases, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion (The Netherlands, 2018) or arrest (Brussels, 2020; Turkey, 2021) of Iranian diplomats. In limited cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial (Paris 1980 and 1991) and the evidence presented, revealed the defendants’ connection to Iran’s government institutions, and an arrest warrant (the Mikonos Trial in Germany) has been issued for Iran’s then-Minister of Information.

The manner in which these killings were organized and implemented in Iran and abroad, is indicative of a single pattern which, according to Roland Chatelin, the Swiss prosecutor, contains common parameters and detailed planning. It can be ascertained from the similarities between these murders in different countries that the Iranian government is the principal entity who ordered the implementation of these crimes. (4).  Iranian authorities have not officially accepted responsibility for these murders and have even attributed their commission to their opposition. Nevertheless, since the very inception of the Islamic Republic regime, the Islamic Republic officials have justified these crimes from an ideological and legal standpoint. In the spring of 1979, Sadeq Khalkhali, the first Chief Shari’a Judge of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, officially announced the regime’s decision to implement extrajudicial executions, and justified the decision: “ … These people have been sentenced to death; from the Iranian people’s perspective, if someone wants to assassinate these individuals abroad, in any country, no government has any right to bring the perpetrator to trial as a terrorist, because such a person is the implementing agent of the sentence issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Therefore, they are Mahduroddam (“one whose blood may be spilled, whose life can be taken, without the perpetrator incurring any punishment”) and their sentence is death regardless of where they are [and where you find them].” More than 10 years after these proclamations, in a speech talking about the security forces’ success, Ali Fallahian, the regime’s Minister of Information stated the following regarding the elimination of members of the opposition: “ … We have had success in inflicting damage to many of these little groups outside the country and on our borders.” (Speech broadcast on the state-run Iranian Radio and Television on August 31, 1992, quoted from Asr Iran, August 17, 2006; and Ali Arabshahi Facebook Page, June 17, 2013).

Extrajudicial killings have rarely been legally followed up on in Iran. The few murders that were followed up on in 1998 and came to be known as “the Serial Murders” (5) have brought to light the involvement and responsibility of the country’s Information officials. Several Ministry of Information agents who were defendants in the Serial Murders case, confirmed the existence of a long term government policy of extrajudicial killings and emphasized that there was planning on an annual basis to carry out these executions, that there was a budget allocated and there were objectives set, and those who participated in the murders were commended. In a lecture given at [the city of] Hamedan’s Bu Ali University in 1996, Sa’eed Emami, Ministry of Information Deputy Minister for Security Affairs and one of the principal defendants in the Serial Murders case – who was said by Iranian officials to have committed suicide while in detention – had stressed that the activities of Iran’s security forces were not confined to the country’s borders: “ … We have set the security perimeter within the confines of our borders. [However,] if we see threats infiltrating inside the country from abroad, we will enlarge the perimeter.” He had also emphasized that he had said the following to the head of another country’s intelligence services regarding the murder of political opponents by forces affiliated with the Islamic Republic: “Of course we killed them. Not just the Monafeqin (MKO) but people from other groups as well.” (Blogger news, 2008-09). Although he had stated in that conversation that the assassinations were related to whether the victims were armed or not, nevertheless, the killing of opponents was not limited to persons affiliated with armed groups and included a wide array of opponents and dissenters, and even non-political individuals.

In his confession in the course of interrogations related to the killing of Mr. Dariush Foruhar, Ms. Parvaneh Eskandari, Mr. Mohammad Jafar Puyandeh, and Mr. Mohammad Mokhtari in 1998 to December 2000, contained in a one thousand-page file (that had been put at the disposal of the plaintiffs and their attorneys for a short time), Rasul Katuzian (Rasuli), the Ministry of Information Deputy Minister for Security Affairs’ General Director for Operations Support had provided the following explanation regarding the background for such murders in the Ministry’s operational plans: “ … Every year, in devising the work plan that was approved by the then Minister, one or several physical elimination cases were planned and would subsequently get to the Minister’s office, and the eliminations were carried out over the course of the year, most of which would be cause for commendations and praise.” Furthermore, Asghar Eskandari (Sayahi), a staff member of the Ministry of Information’s Operations Division stated in this regard: “ … These types of actions were part of the [Information] Ministry’s routine operations and therefore, it wasn’t my first time either. We were familiar with [these types of killings] several years prior to the eliminations that came to be known as the Serial Murders, so much so that in the course of the annual planning, kidnappings and eliminations were slated as the most distinctive actions. These plans still exist in the [Ministry’s] documents and archives in written form …” (6) (Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021).

In their confessions, the Serial Murders defendants stated that they had a religious decree [issued by a cleric authorized to issue such orders] for carrying out the murders. In his confession, Omid Hamidi who worked at the [Ministry’s] Office of the Deputy for Security Affairs, alluded to meetings convened for the “elimination” of individuals and emphasized: “I carried out my duties in implementing the decrees.” He also stated that the Ministry’s officials and deputies, including the people in charge of the Operations Division, were informed of his activities in killing opponents. Mehdi Zolfaqar, another Ministry of Information employee, talked in his confession about the hierarchical nature of the implementation of the murders and described the procedure as “one ordered by the superiors; intelligence work requires that action be taken in accordance with the superior’s orders, [there are no] explanations, [you don’t ask] questions and [you’re not given any] answers.” (7) (Marze Porgohar Party, quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021).

The Al-Ghadir Program: Kidnapping and Murder of the MKO by the Ministry of Information

Revolutionary forces and institutions started killing political opponents and minorities beginning in the first months of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) members and supporters inside and outside Iran became a target and dozens of them were killed prior to the declaration of armed action by that Organization on June 20, 1981. (Boroumand Center research).

In their confessions given in the course of interrogations, most Serial Murders defendants alluded to the plan devised for the “kidnapping” and “elimination” of MKO members or supporters, called Al-Ghadir, the primary responsibility for which lied with the “Elteghat (literally meaning picking, choosing, and combining concepts that are not always in conformity with each other) General Division”. (Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021). This Division – which was established in the Revolutionary Guards Corps prior to the declaration of armed action by the MKO and had subsequently been moved to the Ministry of Information – was one of the three divisions engaged in the analysis, pursuit, and clashes with groups opposed to the Islamic Republic, and charged with and responsible for dealing with Moslem groups such as the MKO, Forqan (8), and Arman-e Mostaz’afin (9). (Tasnim News Agency, June 24, 2019). According to a security official who spoke under an assumed name, the Elteghat Division functioned under the Ministry of Information’s Office of the Deputy for Security Affairs. “It also had the largest manpower, as there were between 150 to 200 employees of the Ministry’s Elteghat Division.” (Tasnim News Agency, June 24, 2019). Ali Ahmadi (Nazeri), who, according to Mehrdad Aalikhani, Head of the Ministry of Information’s New Left Office and one of the main defendants of the Serial Murders, was one of the “main people in the Al-Ghadir Program”, had confirmed in his confession that “these types of activities (i.e. the murder of opponents) have been taking place for years and security and intelligence systems do have and do resort to such methods … These types of activities were customary in the Ministry of Information, and they presented no issues in practice”. (Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021).

According to Nasser Zarafshan, the attorney representing a number of the victims of the Serial Murders’ families, at least two different Deputyship offices of the Ministry of Information and three different General Divisions of said Ministry were involved in the killings. (Voice of America YouTube Channel, November 27, 2015). According to the confessions of Ministry of Information officials, the most important sections involved in the murder of MKO members and supporters were probably [the Ministry’s] Office of the Deputy for Security Affairs and the departments functioning under it, i.e. the Elteghat General Division and the Operations Division. (10)

According to a security official who spoke under an assumed name, the MKO started taking action in pulling out its forces from Iran around spring of 1982: “After we found out about this, we set up traps in the west of the country.” (Tasnim News Agency, June 24, 2019). According to another security official, Islamic Republic security agents had moles in the MKO starting as early as 1981: “The moles had infiltrated the Organization and had also been recruited by it.” (Tasnim News Agency, June 24, 2019). In an interview regarding the infiltration of information forces into opposition groups, Ali Fallahian, [then-President] Hashemi Rafsanjani’s Minister of Information, stated: “ … It wasn’t jinns and angels that provided us with information … In order to combat groups that engaged in the traffic of contraband; explosives; pornographic movies, pictures, and brochures; and in order to combat anti-revolutionaries and Monafeghin, we had no alternative but to infiltrate these groups …” (Kayhan, May 26, 2001). Although the mechanism for the kidnapping and murder of supporters and members of the MKO under the Al-Ghadir Program is not clear, it seems, however, that one of its most important objectives was to prevent MKO members and supporters from joining the Organization in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.

Available evidence also indicates that efforts were made by supporters and members of the MKO to leave the country through the Sistan and Baluchestan Province border. In a conversation with the Islamic Revolution Documents Center website, Bahram Noruzi, a commander in the Police Force, explained that he was stationed in the south of the country until around 1983, and said this about the MKO members and supporters’ exit route from Iran’s eastern border: “We received information that an exit route had begun from Zahedan, and an order [requiring us to edal with the issue]. Combatting narcotics traffic was also an issue that we were dealing with. They issued a two-month mission deployment for me in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. That two-month mission lasted six years.” (Islamic Revolution Documents Center website, July 14, 2020).

In spite of the fact that this former police official has spoken about the arrest of MKO members who intended to leave the country (Islamic Revolution Documents Center website, July 14, 2020) and several witnesses have also talked or written about the imprisonment of these individuals (the book Na Zistan, Na Marg (“Neither Living Nor Dying”)), the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center’s research has identified individuals that were kidnapped and murdered by Ministry of Information agents as they were attempting to leave the country in that same period. (Boroumand Center research).

According to Mehrdad Aalikhani’s confession, the Ministry of Information was in possession of a building near Behesht Zahra Cemetery, the rooms and open spaces of which were used to kill the victims. He talked in his account about how Ministry of Information operatives killed one of the victims in that building “in a very professional and controlled manner”, without leaving a trace. (Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021). Abdorrahman Boroumand Center research indicates that a number MKO members and supporters and families of those executed, found [and would run into] each other at Behesht Zahra Cemetery. It is likely that Ministry of Information agents had established a constant presence at Behesht Zahra through this building, and that they used the Cemetery for the purpose of gathering information and secretly killing or burying members and supporters of the MKO if necessary. (Boroumand Center research).

The connection between, and the continuous nature of, the killings in the fall of 1998, in what came to be known as the Serial Murders, and the killing of people whose death aroused public indignation, brought to the fore [and in full] public view the issue of extrajudicial killings, even though these types of murders had long been a part of the Ministry of information’s annual plans and projects. The killing of members and supporters of the MKO was also one of these projects. It is not clear how many people were killed within the framework of the Al-Ghadir Program, and under the project of the “[physical] elimination” of members and supporters of the MKO. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has the names of more than 30 individuals who are suspected to have been kidnapped and killed in the course of that Program. (Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021; the book Na Zistan, Na Marg; Boroumand Center research).

Officials’ Reaction

There is no information regarding the officials’ statements concerning the killing of MKO members and supporters, including Ms. Mada’en.

However, Islamic Republic officials have stressed the necessity for violent action against and physical elimination of the members and supporters of the MKO on numerous occasions. In an interview given when he was the President of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament), Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani considered the MKO to be “a [nefarious and] invalid organization” and said: “It is actually better for an invalid political organization to be in danger and to perish; a righteous organization, however (what we believe in), is one that is based on Islamic tenets and jurisprudence, just like the substance and nature of the Islamic Revolution.” (Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, April 24, 1981). In his lecture given at the city of Tabriz Friday Prayer in September 1981, Ali Meshkini stated: “ … Shari’a Hadd (punishment) which is death, must be carried out against these people [the MKO], wherever it is that they rise up against the Islamic Rule, in the streets and in alleyways ...” (Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, September 27, 1981).

According to available evidence, in the course of the adjudication of the charges against the defendants in the Serial Murders cases, the case against persons involved in and persons who issued the orders to carry out the Al-Ghadir Program was never heard. However, Nasser Zarafshan, the attorney who, in addition to representing a number of the families of known victims of the Serial Murders, also represented several other persons who were thought to have been connected to these murders, was prosecuted, and subsequently arrested in the street in 2002, and taken to jail to serve a five-year prison sentence for disclosing government secrets. (ISNA, August 9, 2002; Radio Farda, March 16, 2007).

Family’s Reaction

Around December 1988, Ms. Mada’en’s family went to Evin, Qezelhessar, and Gohardasht Prisons, asking about their child, but prison officials would constantly postpone responding to them to the following days and weeks, and never gave them a clear response. (Boroumand center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, November 10, 2021).

When she left Iran years later, Ms. Mada’en’s sister was able to determine for certain, through MKO members residing in Camp Ashraf, that Ms. Mada’en had never reached that camp or any other camp or location belonging to the MKO. Ms. Mada’en’s family was also able to determine for certain, through conversations with Ms. Niakan’s family, whose other daughter had left Iran around 1985-86 and had joined Camp Ashraf, that their daughter had never reached said Camp. (Boroumand center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021; and April 2, and June 3, 2009). After the fall of [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein, Ms. Mada’en’s family inquired with the International red Cross about their daughter and are certain that she does not have a file in that organization. They have been speaking openly for years about their daughter’s disappearance at various venues, in the hopes of discovering the truth. For instance, Ms. Mada’en’s sister asked the listeners during a Club House Social Network program to let her know if they have any information about her sister. (Boroumand center interview with Ms. Mada’en’s sister, October 11, 2021; and April 2, and June 3, 2009; Be Yad Aar Telegram Channel, July 3, 2021).

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1) 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. 
2) According to the testimonies of some of the political prisoners who were tried during the executions of the summer of 1988 in some of the prisons, the trials took place in a room in the prison after a few weeks of isolation during which prisoners were deprived of visitation, television and radio broadcasts, and outdoors time. In August and September, a three-member delegation composed of the public prosecutor, a religious judge, and a representative of the Ministry of Information asked prisoners questions about their views on Mojahedin, whether they would renounce their beliefs and if they were ready to cooperate against the Mojahedin. 
Based on what the answers were, the prisoners would have been charged with “counter revolutionary, anti-religion and anti-Islam” or “associated with military action or with various [opposition] groups based near the borders” and would be sentenced to death.   The authorities never informed prisoners about the delegation’s purpose and the serious implications of their responses. According to survivors, during the summer of 1988 a large number of prisoners sympathizing with the Mojahedin or Leftist groups were executed for not recanting their beliefs.  
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 when they were retried and sentenced to death.
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 authorities’ accusations against the prisoners – 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 with various [opposition] groups based near the borders.” 
An edict of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah 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 members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization as “hypocrites” who do not believe in Islam and “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 same letter, rebutting the accusation that these prisoners (from inside the prison) had collaborated with armed members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization in clashes with armed forces of the Islamic Republic, states that such claims “are false, considering the circumstances in prisons; for our children faced most difficult conditions [in prison, with] visitation rights of once every 15 days, each visitation lasting ten minutes through a telephone, from behind the glass window, and were deprived of any connection with the outside world. We faced such conditions for seven years, which proves the truth of our claim.” 
The details regarding the execution sentence are not available.  Months after the executions, prison authorities informed the families about the executions and handed in the victims’ belongings to their families.  The bodies, however, were not returned to them.  The bodies were buried in mass graves and the locations are not known to the families.  Authorities warned the families of prisoners against holding memorial ceremonies.
3) Among the first known murders that occurred a week after the February 1979 Revolution was that of Mr. Parviz (Arastu) Sayyah Sina, the bishop of a church in the city of Shiraz. The assassination of Mr. Shahriar Shafiq, an Imperial Navy officer, in December 1979 in Paris is among the first murders committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the country. Among the latest known extrajudicial killings, as of the time of this report in November 2021, is the assassination of Mohammad Ebrahim Safizadeh, a Sunni Islam cleric, on May 19, 2019, in the city of Herat in Afghanistan, and the murder of Massud Molavi Vardanjani, a former associate of security organs and the administrator of the Telegram Social Network channel called “Ja’beh-ye Siah” (“Black Box”) on November 14, 2019, in Istanbul, Turkey.
4) Investigations into the murder of well-known personalities in France, Germany and Switzerland have yielded evidence and documentation showing that the officials and employees of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran acted as accomplices and principals [in the killings]. In France, the Islamic Republic’s Deputy Minister of Post and Telegraph was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for the murder of two individuals. In Germany (Berlin), the Islamic Republic’s security agents and agents of the Lebanese Hezbollah were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of four Iranian opponents of the regime. In connection with the latter case, German Judicial authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian, the then-Minister of Information. The Berlin Criminal Court, in charge of hearing the case, officially announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s highest-ranking officials had issued the order to carry out the killings. According to the indictment presented in said Court, the decision to commit the murders was made in a committee called the “Special Operations Committee” composed of the President, the Minister of Information and Security (VAVAK), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, representatives of the various security organs and other organizations, and finally, the Leader of the Revolution.
5) A few days before Mr. Mokhtari’s murder, Dariush Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, leaders of the People of Iran Party, had been killed in a most heinous manner in their own home. After Mr. Mokhtari’s body was found, the body of Mohammad Ja’far Puyandeh, another well-known literary figure, was discovered in a village near the city of Karaj. These four individuals’ cases was named the “Serial Murders”.
6) According to Mostafa Noruzi (Mohseni), one of the employees of the Operations Division of the Ministry of Information’s Office of the Deputy Minister for Security Affairs, “ … I must say that the task of physical elimination and other similar work, [such as] the arrest and transfer of the defendant, self-defense and physical training, constant surveillance, etc., had been set and assigned to us by the Ministry [of Information], and these tasks were part of our duties … And generally speaking, these types of work were done a lot in the Ministry [of Information], whether abroad or inside the country; and it was only in this particular case [the murder of Parvaneh Eskandari and Dariush Foruhar] that things turned out this way”. Ali Safa’ee (Mohammad Hosseini), an employee of the Operations Division of the Ministry of Information’s Office of the Deputy Minister for Security Affairs has stated: “It was around 1986 or 1987 that … I came to the Ministry [of Information’s] Operations [Division] and started working as a team member, and became an operations expert in operations for the arrest, kidnapping, and physical elimination of teams of Monafeqin (MKO), and [the identification and] destruction of the Monafeqin, anti-revolutionaries, and opponents of the regime collective houses.”
7) Ali Safa’ee (Mohammad Hosseini), who was identified in confessions related to the Serial Murders as an operations expert and the person who had played a role in the “kidnapping and physical elimination of teams of Monafeqin (MKO)”, has stated: “All physical elimination tasks were performed on orders of the superiors … and everybody knew about it because it was clear from the speeches they gave that they knew about it.” (Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021).
8) Forqan was formed in 1977 by a group of Ali Shari’ati’s followers with a modern interpretation of the Qoran and Islamic ideology. It is not clear whether or not the group was armed, but it went underground soon after its formation. Based on documents available in the archives of the Islamic Revolution Documentation Center (gathered and reported by Ahmad Gudarzi on Bacheha-ye Ghalam website), this group opposed from the onset of the Revolution the involvement of the clergy in the government and the particular interpretation of Islam later implemented by the Islamic Republic authorities. In its short period of post-revolutionary activity, the group was accused of involvement in several assassinations and armed robberies, the first one reportedly as early as May 1979, only a couple of months after the triumph of the Revolution. Based on the above mentioned report, most of the known members of the group were executed or killed in clashes with Islamic Revolutionary Committee forces, which led to the total elimination of the group in January 1980.
9) Arman-e Mostaza’fin Organization was founded in the summer of 1976 before the Islamic Revolution. This organization, just like the MKO, were followers of Mohammad Ali Shariati’s ideology, and started their ideological activities after the revolution by publishing a magazine called “Arman or Payam-e Mostaz’afin”. There are a few members in this group and they were mainly active in Dezful (in Khuzestan Province). They were against armed struggle and their ideological activities lasted until February 1982 when their leaders and members were arrested. Although the leaders were not executed, some of the members were executed in different cities. 
10) Mehrdad Aalikhani, one of the principal defendants in the Serial Murders case, had stated in his confession that, Sa’eed Emami, Ministry of Information Deputy Minister for Security Affairs in the years 1989 to 1998, had told him: “If you ever leave, be careful not to talk about the work you’ve done in the past; leave those tasks alone.” (Marze Porgohar Party (quoted in Pezhvak-e Iran, August 3, 2021).

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