Iranian Executions: System Lost Control

          
          Iranian Executions: System Lost Control
          By Ronald Koven Washington Post Foreign Service
          The Washington Post (/974 Current file) ; Mar 25, 1979;
          ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (18774994)
          pg. A16
          Iranian F xecntioas: System Lost Control
          Blocked due to copyiight
          See full page image or
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          By Ronald Koven
          WashinUon Post Foreign Service
          TEHRAN, March 24—The summaty
          trials and executions carried out in
          the heat of the first month of fran's
          Islamic revolution were ordered by a
          hastily appointed p u b lie prosecutor
          who acted jinchecked until he was dis-
          missed last week, according to one of
          the key leaders of the revolution
          Sadegh Ghatbzadeb, a close aide of
          Ayatollah Ruhollab K horn e I n i, de
          scribed the scramble to get the Mos
          1cm leader to order a ‘halt to dxecu-
          tions just hours be ore the revolu-
          tion's most important prisoner, Amir
          Abbas Hoveyda, the shah's prime
          minister for 13 years, was scheduled to
          go before a firing squad without the
          authorization of any officials of the
          new government.
          “Khomeini thought the Revolutiou
          ary Council was in charge and he
          didn't want to interfere,” Ghotbzadeh
          said. “The Revolutionary C a u n cii
          thought the government was in charge,
          and the government thought it all had
          Kohmeini's approval,
          “When tue executious started in the
          provinces, we thought they were
          under the authority of the central
          revolutionary courts. We Only realized
          what was really going on when we
          started protesting and asking who was
          ordering what,'
          Ghotbzadeh, no the direc or of
          Iranian state radio and television, cx
          plained that in the confusion of the
          early days of the revolution, the Kho
          meini -appointed Revolutionary Coi.n-
          dil named a revolutionary prosecutor
          general to take charge of the prisoners
          being held at Khomeini headquarters
          in a run down girls' school,
          The new prosecutor proceeded on
          his own to create the Tebran Revolu
          tionary Court, according to this var
          Sian Responsible for the largest num
          ber of trials and immediate executions,
          the Tehran court served as a model
          for similar tribunals named all over
          the Pountry by local Khomeini corn
          niittees,
          “They sprang Up like mushrooms,”
          said Ghotbzadeh, describing the action
          of local groups that assumed that the
          central authorities wanted them to do
          what was being done in the capital.
          The first trials and executions took
          place shortly before midnight Feb, 16,
          just five dais after the government of
          Prime Minister Shahpour Bakl'tiar
          and the military had fallen. Four gen
          erals, including the former head of
          the shah's dreaded secret police,
          SAVAK, were shot by a firing squad
          ordered by the revolutionary prose
          cutor reportedly once a victim of
          SAVAK torture himself,
          “Frankly,” said Ghotbzadeh, “no one
          was paying that much attention, and
          no one felt any pity or concern, not
          for the first four generals who were
          shot or fo— ti -c next four generals
          [ five days later], The government was
          collapsing and we were trying to g t
          control before it went over the brink.
          one gave a damn about a few ex
          ecutaoz here und there,”
          Altogether, 62 former officials of
          Shah Mohainmad .Reza Pabjavi's gov-
          ernment were summarily executed, in-
          cluding 21 generals. The evidence sug-
          gests that the leadership was happy
          enough to let the prosecutor dispense
          sunimary justice'as Lang as he was ex
          ecuting alleged torturers and mass
          murderers but that the tide turned
          against him when he started sending
          political offenders before the fuing
          squad,
          ‘Liberal and middle class opinion,
          which has since turned against the ex
          ecutions, expressed satIsfaction aver
          the first executions, After the li st
          group, the English language daily
          Kayhan International headlined across
          eight columns at the top of its front
          page the single word, “Retribution,”
          Its editorial that day was headlined,,
          “They Lived and Died by the Gun,”
          The prosecutor, Ghotbzadeh said,
          chose fellow victims of SAVAK tortu i a
          as judges for his court, He said they
          have all since been dismissed and are
          being replaced by professionals, He
          refused to reval the prosecutor's name,
          saying that the man was a sincere rev
          olutsanary who had thought he was
          doing the right thing The prosecutor
          apparently has been replaced by Meh-
          di Hadavi, a vCteran judge,
          The prosecutor could act as he did,
          Gbotbzaaeh said, because there are no
          clear lines of authority between the
          Revolutionai y Council named by Kho
          mcmi and the provisional government
          :of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan,
          The issue came to a head just before
          the final ,1 executions in Tehran,
          Until then, the government and
          council members both assumed with'
          out question that the prosecutor was
          acting on authority from the other
          body, Ghotb adeh said
          Ghotbzadeb said he asked KIia
          mcmi by telephone last Friday morn
          mg to halt the trials and that he did
          so immediately, Bazargan had gone to
          see Khomeini at his residence in Qoni
          the evening befoi e with a similar plea,
          Kohmeini issued orders to suspend all
          trials in Tehran and all executions
          elsewhere,
          “He was the only one who could..
          Stop it,” said Ghotbzadeh, “A few
          hours later, I assure you, Hoveyda
          would have been gone”
          The Hoveyda trial will resume in a
          few weeks with a reinstituted court
          following new procedures, Ghotbzadeh
          said,
          Pr '
          Two i Ur S pDi t to uortar amoge to o buHdi g im S aodaj , i i w t n 1r ,