
Sabzevar Rezaee Mirghaed
AKA: Mohsen Rezaee
- Member of the IRGC Statute Board, National (1979)
- Founder and commander of the IRGC’s intelligence unit, National (1979 - 1981)
- Human Rights Violation: Participation in the repression, torture and execution of political opponents (1979 - 1981) read more
- Institution
- IRGC
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom from torture, Right to life
- Description
As the head of the IRGC's intelligence unit at the beginning of the revolution, Mohsen Rezaee was involved in the arrest, torture, imprisonment, prosecution, and execution of members or supporters of political organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic. The IRGC intelligence in Tehran and many other cities was the main institution responsible for the repression and elimination of the opposition of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which targeted mainly the Marxist political organisations and the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MEK).
- Sources
Impunity: Torture and Sexual Violence Against Female Political Prisoners, Justice for Iran, 2011
- Human Rights Violation: Participation in the repression, torture and execution of political opponents (1979 - 1981) read more
- Chief Commander of the IRGC, National (1981 - 1997)
- Human Rights Violation: Participate in the repression, torture and execution of political opponents (1981 - 1997) read more
- Institution
- Chief Commander
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom from torture, Right to life
- Description
As commander of the IRGC, Mohsen Rezaee has been directly involved in arresting, torturing, and killing members and supporters of political organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic, including torturing, threatening to rape, and pressurising Tuba Kamangar, a jailed member of the Komala Party, to marry her prison guards. According to witnesses, Mohsen Rezaei also frequently visited the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shuhada security base and Sanandaj prison, and closely observed the torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners.
- Sources
Impunity: Torture and Sexual Violence Against Female Political Prisoners, Justice for Iran, 2011
- Human Rights Violation: Participation in the overseas assassination of political dissenters (1981 - 1997) read more
- Institution
- Chief Commander
- Location
- Overseas
- Rights Violated
- Right to life
- Description
Since its inception, the IRGC have been directly involved in terrorist operations outside Iran's borders. During Mohsen Rezaee's tenure as commander of the IRGC, on 17 September, 1992, three leaders of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP) and one of their comrades were killed in a terrorist operation at a restaurant called Mykonos in Berlin. The trial lasted three and a half years, and German officials eventually concluded that the Iranian government was directly involved in the killings. During the trial, Abul Hassan Bani Sadr testified about the existence of a committee called the "Special Affairs Committee", one of its duties is to lay the groundwork and monitor the execution of political assassinations. According to the testimony of witness "C" or Abolghasem Mesbahi, a high-ranking former intelligence officer of the Ministry of Intelligence, whose testimony was later confirmed and is one of the main sources of the German prosecutor's indictment, Mohsen Rezaei was a regular member of this committee.
An explosion at the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in January 1994 killed 85 people and injured more than 300. Two years before that, a bomb exploded at an Israeli embassy in argentina, killing 29 people. Argentina blamed Iran for the bombings, and a number of Islamic Republic officials, including Mohsen Rezaee, were prosecuted and put on the Interpol’s wanted list for their key role in the 2007 bombings.
- Sources
Murder in Mykonos: An Analysis of a Political Assassination, Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, 2011
Argentina demands extradition of Iranian suspects in Jewish Center bombing, Radio Farda, October 2009
https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f4_Argentina_suspects_Iran/466068.html
Mykonos Case: details of the testimony of Abolghasem Mesbahi in the court, Abolhassan Bani Sadr, 2012
Ex-president of Iran says Khameini gave order for killings, Irish Times, 1996
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ex-president-of-iran-says-khameini-gave-order-for-killings-1.79329
- Human Rights Violation: Participate in the repression, torture and execution of political opponents (1981 - 1997) read more
- Commander of Khatam al Anbia HQ, National (1988 - 1989)
- Member and secretary of Expediency Discernment Council, National (1997 - present)
- Human Rights Violation: Supporting the suppression of protesters (Jan 2018) read more
- Institution
- Expediency Discernment Council
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom of assembly, Right to life
- Description
Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of the Expediency Council, claimed that the peaceful protests in various cities of the country had been planned and carried out by foreign powers and supported the widespread and violent repression of protesters. The nationwide protests of 2017-2018, known as the protests of January 2018, were widespread demonstrations in protest of inflation and corruption, which began on 27 December, 2017 in Mashhad and several cities in Khorasan province and quickly spread throughout Iran and include harsher anti-government slogans. The crackdown on protesters led to the deaths of at least 25 protesters and several detainees who were killed under torture.
- Sources
Mohsen Rezaei: Head of the CIA Special Operations Desk’s trip to Erbil on the Turmoil in Iran, Tasnim
https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Rezaei-1.pdf
The latest death toll in the protests; Judiciary Spokesman: 25 people were killed in the street, Radio Farda, 15 December, 2017
https://www.radiofarda.com/a/iran_judiciary_mohseni_ezhei_protests/28974896.html
- Human Rights Violation: Supporting the suppression of the rights of the Gonabadi Darwish minority (19 Feb 2018 - 20 Feb 2018) read more
- Institution
- Expediency Discernment Council
- Location
- Tehran (Tehran Province)
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom from torture, Right to freedom of assembly, Right to life
- Description
Mohsen Rezaei, as the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, supported and praised the police force for brutally suppressing the Gonabadi dervishes in the events known as the "Seventh Golestan".
On 19 February, 2018, a number of Gonabadi dervishes from Sufi religious minorities in Iran gathered on Golestan 7th Street in Tehran to protest the arrest of their comrades and impose restrictions on Noor Ali Tabandeh, the dervishes' spiritual leader. The rally was violently attacked by police and security forces, and protesters were severely beaten. 170 dervishes were taken to hospital due to the severity of their injuries and about 300 of them were arrested, including Mohammad Raji, who died in Shapur Detention Centre due to the severity of his injuries.
Dozens of Gonabadi dervishes were tried in an unjust manner and sentenced to severe imprisonment, flogging and deportation. Mohammad Salas, one of arrested Dervishes, was tried on charges of murdering three police officers by running them over by a bus while he repeatedly denied the charges and asserted that his false confessions were obtained under severe torture. Salas was executed, on June 2018, only on the basis of confessions obtained under torture.
- Sources
Mohsen Rezaei appreciates the NAJA’s good tact, the official website of the Expediency Council, 1 July, 2018
https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Rezaei-2.pdf
- Human Rights Violation: Supporting the suppression of protesters (Jan 2018) read more
- Re-membership in the IRGC and teaching at Imam Hussein University, National (2015 - present)