On April 19, 1972, the Shah regime executed a group of senior members of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Nasser Sadegh, Mohammad Bazargani, Ali Mihandoost, and Ali Bakeri were among the MEK’s central committee members whom were all arrested eight months prior and severely tortured by the Shah’s SAVAK intelligence agency.
They were executed by a firing squad following sham trials in the Shah’s military courts. Around the same time, SAVAK also murdered Asghar Montazer Haghighi in street clashes.
Three years later, again on April 19, the Shah’s regime executed seven members of the Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerrillas and two senior MEK members by the names of Kazem Zulanvar and Mostafa Javan Khoshdel. The Shah’s regime, witnessing the impact of the MEK and Fedaian in Iranian society, especially among college students and educated people, targeted its revenge on political prisoners. SAVAK sought to whitewash these executions by claiming inmates trying to escape were shot and killed by prison guards. Bijan Jazani, Hassan Zia Zarifi, Aziz Sarmadi, Abbas Sourki, Mohammad Choopanzadeh, Saeed Kalantari, and Ahmad Jalili Afshar were the seven Fedaian members executed by the Shah’s regime. Zulanvar and Javan Khoshdel were political prisoners sentenced to death. The Shah’s regime, concerned about escalating international condemnations, had downgraded their sentence to life imprisonment to save face.
Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi on Mostafa Javan Khoshdel – April 19, 1980
“I remember exactly that Mohammadi, the interrogator of Mostafa Javan Khoshdel and Kazem Zulanvar, who were killed in the hills of Evin Prison under the pretext of escaping, was baffled on how to break them. Mostafa was in prison for seven months. There was no food and he was very ill. I don’t know if his eyeglasses [prescription number] were five or six, and his vision was weakening. The prison officials still refused to give him his glasses. His body was also full of fungus. His knees were very weak and it was almost difficult for him to walk. Despite all these atrocities, the interrogators and torturers were left defeated and didn’t know how to break him.”
Bahman Naderipour (Tehrani), a SAVAK torturer, on the incident of April 19
“The prisoners were taken out and ordered to sit in a row while their hands tied behind their backs and blindfolded. Reza Atarpour (another SAVAK member) stepped forward triumphantly and said: ‘We sentence you and want carry out the execution now.’ Jazani and a few others began to protest. The first person who opened fire was Colonel Vaziri, and since they had ordered all the prison guards to open fire, they all began firing their rifles. I was the fourth or fifth person to shoot. Jalil Saadi Esfahani went to deliver a coup de grace to every one of the inmates.”
This was only a brief look into the crimes of the Shah’s regime against freedom fighters.
Following the recent nationwide uprising of the Iranian people, we are witnessing that the son of the same dictator is claiming to be the champion of democracy in Iran while remaining proud of his family’s past.
The irony is that he never mentions nor condemns the crimes committed by his father and grandfather against the people of Iran. And while his supporters hold posters of Sabeti and the Savak emblem, he remains silent on the crimes of the former dictatorship.
While the people of Iran are chanting against the regime’s IRGC and paramilitary Basij, the son of the Shah is openly expressing support for dialogue with the mullahs’ dictatorship and the IRGC.
The people of Iran overthrew Pahlavi monarchy on February 11, 1979. However, considering the fact that the real leaders of the 1979 revolution were in prison, regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, with the support of a network of mullahs, was able to hijack the leadership of Iran’s revolution. From the very beginning, he started to establish a tyranny under the veil of religion.
After 100 years of fighting dictators, the people of Iran will not allow anyone to hijack their new revolution. This can be witnessed in the streets across the country where brave Iranian protesters are chanting: “Down with the oppressor be it the Shah or the mullahs!”
