Seyyed Ata’ollah Mohajerani

As the representative of the city of Shiraz to the IRI’s Parliament and a Member of the Presiding Committee, he was fully aware of the unfair trials of the Baha'i religious minority and the issuance of imprisonment and execution sentences in Shiraz.

Despite his responsibility as a member of parliament, he refused to investigate the allegations of unfair trials and ill-treatment of detained Baha’is of Shiraz and disregarded their families’ grievances and complaints. In response to such grievances, and despite the IRI’s obligation under Article 9 of the ICCPR, the Iranian authorities demanded that Baha’is “must convert to Islam.”

On June 18th, 1983, agents of the IRI transferred ten Baha'i women imprisoned in Adel-Abad prison in Shiraz, to the Abdullah Mesgar barracks known as “Midan Chogan” and executed them. Among these women was seventeen-year-old Mona Mahmoudnejad.. Two days before that, on June 16th, six Baha'i men were executed in Shiraz, some of whom were family members of these executed women.

Mona Mahmoudnejad’s sister stated: "...we all gathered and wrote a letter of complaint. We said tell us why they were arrested. I went to Tehran. I went to the parliament and asked to meet the representative from Shiraz, but he refused…[to meet with us].”

Based on available sources, all these women were arrested in late October and then interrogated on November 29th, 1982, because of their religious beliefs. They were subjected to physical and mental torture to renounce their religion and convert to Islam.

On February 22nd, 1983, the Sharia Judge and the head of the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz were interviewed by "Khabar Jonoob" newspaper, about the death sentences of " members of the Baha'i Organisation in Shiraz", which included these imprisoned women. He warned the Baha'is to "come to the bosom of dear Islam... and seek absolution before it's too late. Otherwise, a not-so-distant day will come when the Islamic nation treats Baha'is like Monafeghin (a derogatory term used by Iranian officials for the Mujaheding -e- Khalgh (MEK) Organisation, meaning hypocrites) ... The Baha'is should know that they are not stronger than the Monafeghin and that Hezbollah is not incapable of eradicating them.

Mohajerani, as a Member of the Presidium of the Islamic Republic of Iran(IRI)’s Parliament, supported the arrest and torture of the critics of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the IRI. Through framing, defamation, and smear campaigns, he laid the ground for brutal and extra-legal ill-treatment of the dissidents.

In an article , dated April 19th, 1982, in issue 29 of Valfajr magazine, Mohajerani accused several former officials and high-ranking political figures of conspiracy and treason. Those accused include:

-       Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, a former member of the Revolutionary Council, former head of the National Radio and Television Organisations in the interim government, and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs;

-       Mehdi Bazargan, Secretary General of the Nehzat Azadi (Liberation Movement), the Prime Minister of the interim government after the 1979 revolution, and one of the prominent critics of the policies of Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters.  

The main headline of Walfajr magazine in this issue was "Death to Bazargan and Ghotbzadeh".

Sadegh Ghotbzadeh was one of Ruhollah Khomeini’s most trusted revolutionaries. After the revolution, he held various top positions in the interim government until 1980.

Ghotbzadeh was arrested on April 6th, 1982, on charges of plotting a coup and attempting to assassinate Ruhollah Khomeini. During his detention, his forced confession was broadcast on IRI Radio and Television.

Speaking on the torture of Sadegh Ghotbzadeh’s torture, a former government official, Mohsen Saghagara, states that: "They tortured him severely in prison, so much so that later, when they arrested me, in order to intimidate me, the interrogator told me that he had also been Ghotbzadeh’s interrogator, and said they had beaten him so much during interrogation, that he was crawling around on his hands and knees."

After five months of detention, Ghotbzadeh was sentenced to death based on the verdict of the Revolutionary Court and was executed on September 15th, 1982.

Mehdi Bazargan was the Secretary General of Iran's Nehzat Azadi (Liberation Movement) a liberal political organisation and the first prime minister after the 1979 revolution. He was one of the critics of revolutionary executions, the occupation of the American embassy in Tehran and holding American diplomats as hostage in November 1979. As a result of such conflict, he resigned as Prime Minister of the Provisional Government on November 5th, 1979. After that, he became the representative of the people of Tehran in the first term of the Islamic Council and remained in this position for four years. He registered for the presidential election in 1985, but the Guardian Council rejected his eligibility.

Nehzat Azadi Party was founded in 1961 by Mehdi Bazargan, Yadullah Sahabi and Seyyed Mahmoud Taleghani. This party was politically active before and after the 1979 revolution, and its foundation is based on acquiring fundamental freedoms based on Islamic morals and values. The members of this party have nationalist-religious leanings. In January 2007, following pressure from the security and intelligence agencies, the Central Council of the Freedom Movement decided to temporarily cease its political activities.

As the legal and parliamentary deputy of the then prime minister, Mohajerani was aware of the mass executions of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 and played a role in concealing this crime.

In an article he wrote on his blog on October 9th, 2009, he confirms that he was aware of these executions and remained silent about them despite his responsibility as legal deputy of the prime minister to investigate any violation of citizens’ constitutional rights. He says: "...in place of ideals, expediency settled, and in place of religious values, preservation of the system gained respect and credibility... Like all of us who remained silent against the killing of the youths in 1988. We believed that the conditions of war and the foreign threat could be a license for the large-scale killing of our youths, so much so that it would be incomparable to any other time in our history.”

In August and September of 1988, at least 5,000 political prisoners were executed in Iran by Ruhollah Khomeini's fatwa based on the decision of the judicial and intelligence authorities of the IRI after minutes long summary trials. All of them were prisoners and were serving out prison sentences. Many of them had served their time. These political prisoners were secretly executed, and their bodies were buried in unmarked mass graves across Iran.

In July 2022, the Stockholm Criminal Court sentenced Hamid Nouri, who, as an assistant prosecutor, was involved in the execution of political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in 1988,  to life imprisonment for participating in the commission of war crimes and murder.

Through his book “Critique of the Satanic Verses’ Conspiracy“, interviews with the media, and tweets on his Twitter account, Mohajerani has been actively justifying the fatwa for the murder of Salman Rushdie, the author of “Satanic Verses,” his translators, and his publishers; as well as encouraging and urging Muslims around the world to implement it.

In February 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the IRI issued a fatwa as follows:

“I would like to inform bold Muslims worldwide that the author of the book Satanic Verses, which was compiled, printed, and published against Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur'an, as well as the publishers who were aware of its content, have been sentenced to death.

I ask bold Muslims to execute them immediately wherever they find them so that no one dares to insult the sanctity of Muslims, and whoever is killed [implementing this fatwa] is a martyr, God willing.

In addition, if someone has access to the book's author but does not have the power to execute him, he should introduce him to people so that he is punished for his actions. Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings."

In the same year, 1989, Mohajerani published a book criticizing ‘the Conspiracy of the Satanic Verses’ very shortly after the publication of the fatwa. Mohajerani’s book justifies the fatwa for Rushdie's execution based on Islamic laws and concludes that Rushdie ‘deserves to die.’ The most important parts of the book are as follows:

"Chapter four: Examining Imam Khomeini's fatwa….

A) From Historical and Traditional points of view

It has been said that the best reason for anything is its own occurrence. ‘The proof of the sun is the sun (itself)’ (a verse by Rumi). The best reason why a person like Salman Rushdie needs

to be killed from the viewpoint of Islam is the situation of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, which was similar to that of Salman Rushdie.” (P 121-22)

Then, Mohajerani explains in detail that Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf was a Jewish poet who wrote erotic and romantic poems about Muslim women and was killed by Muslims for the same reason.

“When Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, heard the news of his assassination, he said, ‘all praise is due to God, Lord of all the worlds, who rid us of his own enemy’.” (P 123)

Mohajerani then writes that “the words and actions of the Prophet of Islam serve as hujjah (the proof) for Muslims. He is the best uswah (exemplar or epitome).”(P 123)

“While Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf whose poems seem definitely more tolerable than the Satanic Verses, deserved to be killed, no room will be left for any doubt regarding Salman Rushdie.”(P123-24)

Mohajerani then brings other examples of people who mocked the Prophet of Islam with their poems and writings and says those people were also killed upon a decree by the Prophet who ordered Muslims to kill them wherever possible. (P 124-125)

The fourth chapter goes on to state:

“B) From Viewpoint of Jurisprudence (Fiqh) in Various Islamic Denominations

“Salman Rushdie is considered an apostate and a person who has insulted the Prophet of Islam and Quran given that he explicitly admitted in his book The Jaguar Smile that he is an infidel, and that he insulted and mocked the beliefs of Muslim people including the beliefs in Almighty God, Holy Quran, Prophet of Islam, Prophet Abraham, Prophet Ishmael, Prophet Jesus, Gabriel, and Islamic rules as well as the companions of Prophet Muhammad including Salman the Persian, Bilal ibn Rabah, and Prophet Muhammad’s wives. He has been born to a Muslim family. He has intentionally and knowingly insulted, mocked, and desecrated Islamic sanctities. He is a mature and wise man – namely he is not insane. Considering what was mentioned above, he is a murtad fitri (a person who is born to a Muslim parent but then

rejects Islam) and such a person must be executed, especially if he/she insults the Prophet of Islam.” (P 126) Mohajerani ends his book with these sentences:

"When a writer with the most corrupt imagination and words attacked the most sacred values, it is clear that in this battle between darkness and dawn, darkness fades, and mud cannot cover the face of the sun.

Rushdie is a symbol of such a movement and the attack against the most sacred values, and the Imam's fatwa is an answer that has an eternal resonance. Although Rushdie still lives in appearance, he is a prisoner of the darkness of his imagination and desires and tastes death every moment. He is an eternal prisoner in the Western fortress under the Imam's fatwa”

Toward the end of the book, he quotes the Book of Job:

“Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night/The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place./For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand./Men shall clap their

hands at him and shall hiss him out of his place.”

The book’s final sentence “the idiot who talked too much shall perish,” is a somewhat loose translation of a quote from the Book of Proverbs.

His book has been reprinted 30 times since its publication, and the 31st edition will be published soon.

Since the book's publication, Mohajerani has always defended the necessity of executing Salman Rushdie.

For example, a year later, during a panel discussion on “the conspiracy to publish Salman Rushdie's blasphemous book and his arrogant attack against Islam”, which was broadcast on an Iranian state TV channel, he said:

"In my opinion, Westerners didn’t think that after the publication of this book, the Imam (RA) would issue his fatwa with such firmness to Muslims who are fighting for the future... which brought unity among the Muslims of the world. With this fatwa, His Holiness the Imam (RA) showed that anytime people attack the epicenter of Islam, their epicenters must be attacked right back…Westerners thought we would be passive in the face of this trend and weak in dealing with them, but now that a year has passed since this fatwa was issued, the Imam's ruling is still strong and quite viable. Westerners were trying to prevent Iran from taking over the leadership of the Islamic world. Therefore, on this basis, we noticed that after issuing the fatwa, they stated that different sects of Islam do not accept this ruling. But they didn't know this book has insulted all that is sacred within all Islamic sects, namely the Qur'an and the Prophet of Islam. Westerners thought that the Imam's fatwa had a political aspect, which might change this fatwa over time. However, still, the Imam said: "Salman Rushdie, even if he becomes an ascetic of the time, the verdict should be carried out against him". (Etelaa’aat newspaper, February 17th, 1990, page 3)

On July 2nd, 1993, an unknown person bombed a hotel in the city of Sivas, Turkey, where Aziz Nasin was giving a speech. Aziz Nasin was a well-known Turkish writer and translator of Rushdie's book in Turkish. During this terrorist attack, 35 people were killed and more than 100 injured, but Aziz Nasin survived. In the preface to the sixth edition of his book, Mohajerani considers this attack to be part of the glorious movement of Islamic awakening and writes:

"The reality is that Rushdie has become a stone under the feet of the Islamic awakening’s glorious movement... Aziz Nasin, by translating parts of the Satanic Verses in his newspaper and with his speech at the festival, insulted the religious sanctities of the people and was saved from fire and smoke by the Turkish agents... like a microbe that all the powers of the human body are mobilized to destroy that annoying impure element. The Satanic Verses entered the body of the great movement of Islamic awakening like a boosted microbe. But the waves of resistance moved and the plotters and conspirators were stunned. The Imam's fatwa shines like the sun, and Rushdie is helpless in the swamp of the Satanic Verses and his isolation. He will not be able to face the sun.”

In the days after the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie during a speech in New York on August 12th, 2022, Mohajerani, in several tweets on his account, without showing any remorse for what he said and wrote, justified the assassination and fatwa and encouraged Muslims to carry it out, defending and mentioning his book with great pride. For example, in a series of tweets he published on August 13th, he wrote, "I am a writer, and my job was to explain the Imam's fatwa and criticize the novel. You do the other thing [the assassination of Rushdie] who consider it in your solitude!"

Based on the constitution of the IRI, political and press crimes are dealt with in the courts of justice in the presence of a jury.

The members of the jury in Tehran are appointed by the head of the Judiciary and the Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance, the leader of the Islamic City Councils, the head of the Islamic Propaganda Organisation and the representative of the Policy Council of Friday Imams nationwide.

Based on the decision of the jury of the Press Tribunal and its verdict, dozens of newspapers and magazines were seized and banned during Mohajerani’s tenure. In some cases, the press tribunal juries have found the managing director and managing editors guilty as well.

  As the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, he played a role in seizing, suppressing, and implementing an extensive censorship system. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance supervises the journalistic, cultural and artistic activities. Accordingly, this entity plays the leading role in licensing the press, removing and censoring cultural and artistic works, including books, films, theatre, music and other cultural and creative works.

During Attaullah Mohajerani’s three-year tenure as head of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, dozens of artistic and cultural works were seized and removed. For example, the play “Galileo”, directed by Hamid Samandarian, was banned by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance during his tenure.

In a press conference on the 2009 presidential election held on June 7th, 2009, in Berlin, Mohajerani responded to a question on the conditions of the Baha'i religious minority in Iran that “Baha'ism is a pseudo-religion or a fake religion.” Emphasizing that Baha'is can never be recognized as areligious minority in the IRI’s constitution, he said: "People who are arrested in our country are accused not of being Baha'is, but of being connected to Israel"

The IRI’s security and judicial systems have continuously harassed, imprisoned and executed Iranian Baha'is. According to the World Organisation of Baha'is statistics in Geneva, during the revolution's early years, more than two hundred Baha'is were killed or disappeared, and hundreds of Baha'is were arrested, tortured, and imprisoned or expelled from work and universities. To this day, no Baha’i citizen is allowed to study in higher education institutes in Iran.

During the protests of the Gonabadi dervishes and the arrest of Mohammad Salas,  Mohajerani had called them "ISIL" in a tweet published on his user account, which was widely echoed in the pro-government newspapers of Iran in the following days. He attributed the killing of three security agents during these protests to Gonabadi dervishes and Mohammad Salas.

The event known as the 7th Golestan event was a series of protests that took place in Tehran in February and March 2018. On February 18th and 19th of that year, several Gonabadi dervishes gathered in protest against the arrest of dervishes and the siege of the house of Noor Ali Tabandeh, a Sufi elder, in Pasdaran's 7th Golestan Street. The rally turned violent with the attack of the police and security forces; Dervishes were severely beaten, and about 300 of them were arrested.

One of the detainees was a person named Mohammad Salas. He had been accused of running over and killing three agents by bus on the night of February 19th, 2018. There were many ambiguities in the case of Mohammad Salas, and the news of Mohammad Salas’s arrest was published a few hours before the news about the bus accident. At midnight on the same day, a video of Mohammad Salas's confession from his hospital bed was broadcast on the IRI’s official news agency; severely injured and battered, he admits to running over some soldiers with a bus.

The indictment of this case was issued within 48 hours, and the trial of Mohammad Salas was held in three sessions. One month after his arrest, he was sentenced to “triple retribution”. Mohammad Salas was not given access to a lawyer during the interrogations, and the court rejected his lawyer's statement that he was forced to confess under torture and duress. Salas's death sentence was issued based solely on his confessions, and he was executed on May 22nd, 2018, in Rajaee Shahr Prison, Karaj, even though he persistently denied the charges.

In a tweet posted on his user account, Mohajerani thanked the Islamic Revolutionary Guards for kidnapping Ruhollah Zam, an exiled journalist living in France, during his trip to Iraq, to (forcibly) transfer him to Iran. Mohajerani accused Zam of being an Israeli spy.

Ruhollah Zam was a political activist and journalist who was arrested after the 2009 protests against the presidential elections and tortured. Zam left Iran in 2010 and became a refugee in France. Later, he founded the telegram channel "Amadnews", which was active against the IRI.

He was kidnapped by the security forces of the IRI during a trip to Iraq in October 2019. On October 14th, 2019, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps announced the arrest of Ruhollah Zam in a statement describing "an intelligence operation". Ruhollah Zam's first trial was held four months after his arrest was announced.

His trial was held in six sessions, and on June 30th, 2020, the spokesman of the judiciary of the IRI announced the issuance of his death sentence. He said the court "considered 13 of his minor charges as examples of corruption on the world and issued a death sentence."

Shortly after the death sentence, on July 10th, 2020, Iran’s Channel Two of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) aired his filmed confessions. In this program, Ruhollah Zam says he has cooperated and collaborated with foreign governments against Iran's national security. According to Ruhollah Zam's family quoting him, these confessions were obtained under pressure and torture and were used as evidence against him in court.

Ruhollah Zam's lawyers objected to his death sentence, but the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court, and on December 20th, 2020, Ruhollah Zam was executed.

https://archive.ph/0xwu7

In a series of notes titled "The incident of the month of Aban (October/November)" written on his blog, Mohajerani slandered and made false accusations against the protesters and detainees of Aban, and has alleged that  the US and Saudi Arabia were behind the Aban protests.

Such allegations were echoed by pro-government media and officials, and were used as evidence against the protesters in courts, resulting in several death sentences being handed down.

On November 15th, 2019, after the sudden announcement of the increase in gasoline prices, people took to the streets to protest in several Iranian cities, and peacefully chanted against the harsh economic conditions and the ruling regime. These protests spread quickly, and protests organically formed in at least 93 cities and 29 provinces for five days.

Although these protests were entirely peaceful, the IRI cut off the Internet, supressing people violently and bloodily. According to the statistics of human rights organisations and the media, across four days, more than 7,000 people were arrested, and around 1,500 people were killed bu security forces.  A significant number of those killed were children under the age of eighteen.

In a tweet published on his user account, Mohajerani falsely accused Habib Cha’ab, an Arab Ahwazi political activist, of treason based on forcibly obtained confessions.

Habib Farajollah Cha’ab, nicknamed Habib Esivad, is a citizen of Sweden and a political activist against the government of the IRI. He was the former leader of the Arab Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, which started its activities in 2005.

On October 31st, 2020, the Al-Arabiya news channel announced the kidnapping of Habib Cha’ab in Turkey. After that, on November 12th, the Ministry of Intelligence of the IRI confirmed the news of his arrest by publishing a notice. The announcement read: "With the special operation of the anonymous soldiers of Imam Zaman, Farajullah Cha’ab, the leader of the separatist group of Harakat al-Nidal, was identified and arrested."

On November 11th, 2020, the IRI broadcast the forced and false confessions of Habib Caha’ab. In these forced confessions, he accepted responsibility for the "terrorist attack" on September 22nd, 2018, and other "terrorist attacks" in Iran.

The first court session of Habib Cha’ab was held on January 18th, 2022, at Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolution Court. He was charged with "planning and carrying out numerous bombing and terrorist operations in Khuzestan province, including the attack on the people of Ahvaz during the Iran-Iraq war memorial week parade in 2018".

So far, six court sessions have been held to deal with Cha’ab’s case, and during the sixth court session, the lawyer of the families of those killed in the Khuzestan incidents requested that the court hand down "maximum punishment". According to the laws of the IRI, the accusations against Cha’ab could lead to the death sentence being issued for him.

On his Twitter account, Mohajerani named Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force, "the golden leaf of the history of regional security" in Iran. Publishing a photo of Qassem Soleimani and Khamenei, the leader of the IRI, he called Soleimani "the national hero of Iran and Islam". He also wrote an article for the Supreme-Leader run Etteleaat Newspaper in January 2023 and posted on his Twitter account, too, that glorified Soleimani’s act and called him a Mujahid martyr who will never die.

Qassem Soleimani was one of the top military generals of the IRI and commander of the notorious Quds Force responsible for numerous deadly terrorist attacks on civilians around the world. He was responsible for the torture and death of tens of thousands of Syrian dissidents through leading military and security operations to suppress the Syrian revolution since 2011. He was also involved in the deadly suppression of several peaceful protests in Iran between 1997 and 2009.