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
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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 ,
