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By Jonathan C. Randal
Washington Post Foreign Service
QOM, Iran., Dec 15 —His friends
call him “The Wrath of God,” his ene-
mies “The Cat Ciller,” but all Irani-
ans regard Sactegh Ichalkhali as a
man to be reckoned with.
The chief of Iran's revolutionary
court system, known for his death sen-
tences, Khalkhali is a short, squat
man, convinced that vengeance is a
religious duty and determined to seek
revenge among the “corrupt on
earth,” both in Iran and abroad.
His sometimes outwardly vainglori-
ous boasts about assassinating shah
iviohammad Reza Pahlavi, his family
and chief lieutenants are being taken
seriously since the recent assassina-
tion in Paris of a Son of the deposed
monarch's twin sister, Princess Ash-
raf.
“I don't think I have made any mis-
takes,” he said today when asked if it
was true he had erred in some of his
execution orders.
A perhaps apocryphal story re-
counts that when told he had ordered
the execution of a man whose identity
had been mistaken for that of a genu-
ine suspect he replied: “No matter, in
any case he will go straight to
heaven.”
Khalkhali's detractors recount a leg-
end that Khalkhali's lifelong pénch ant
for torturing and killing cats reached
such proportions that he had to be in-
terned for treatment in a mental insti-
tution in years past.
As the 53-year-old Moslem cleric
tells it, his life under the shah was an
unending persecution: first in prison
for siding with his exiled teacher and
hero, Ayatollah Ruhollah iChomeini,
then in banishment in a variety of un-
attractive provincial towns.
He has no doubts about his present
calling. He recounted today that when
he told Khomeini he was being asked
to accept a “heavy responsibility” in
running Iran's ir lutionary courts,
flevenge
Khomeini replied, “I think you are
not afraid.” -
Armed guards patrol outside his
modest house near the railroad tracks
in this holy city and visitors are
frisked before they are admitted into
the courtyard where the washing
hangs on the line. —
. Inside, stony-eyed ac olytes sitting
on rugs follow an exuberant Khalkha-
a's every utterance as their leader in-
terrupts his interview to deal with fa-
vor seekers and stamp proffered docu-
ments with a copper chop.
He appears proud of his controver-
sial reputation and boasts of “anony-
mous letters and telephone calls”
threatening his life
“I was also threatened by the gov-
ernment and revolutionary council,”
he said cryptically.
Nor is IChalkhali bashful in conced-
ing such opposition within the govern-
ment to his penchant for executions.
“I've ordered more than 200 execu-
tions,” he said laughingly, “more than
the Nuremberg trialS” of Nazi war
criminals after World War II. Other
sources put the number of executions
since the February revolution at more
than 600, although some no doubt
Were not condoned or ordered by him.
He specifically mentioned then-
prime minister Mehdi Bazargan's op-
position to the executions last spring
of the shah's longtime prime minister,
Amir Abbas Hoveyda, the former di-
rector of the SAVAK secret police,
Nematollah Nassiri, and an earlier
SAVAK boss. -
Bazargan argued that Hoveyda and
Nassiri were entitled to a fair trial
during which the shah's alleged
crimes could be exposed—a view that
Khomeini has adopted in the present
hostage crisis with the United States
by calling for a show trial to establish
U.S. guilt.
IChalkhali defended his decisions,
arguing that with their connections
and money “they'd be freed by now”
had he not had them shot.
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“If Nassiri came back to life,” he
said, “I'd kill him again.'
Perhaps oddly for a man with such
decidedly rigid views, he said be
hoped for the freedo m of the 50
Americans held hostage at the U.S.
mbassy, whom he referred to as “our
guests.”
However, he said he hopes “none
will be executed,” although that might
be possible “if some are found guilty
of ordering shooting of people.”
E mi l s r i 1 rcsa rnternattona-t
atleg la flaI iciaaii says.
But he seemed as interested i ii a
trial of “all presidents from Carter
back to Roosevelt,” the ëurrent gov-
ernment approach, which insists that
the United States has been respohsi
ble for all Iran's woes under the sháh.
“The shah called his book ‘Mission
For My Country',” Khalkhali slid,
“and I want to know who was respon-
sible for that mission.”
Carefully calculating his effect oh a
See EXECUflOIMflR, ASi, Col. 1
Convinced Vengeance Is a Religions Iflnty,
ECIhaLkhaIi Is fletermined to E arsne
- - - - - - - - - associated rresa
‘rhree alie a sttala sn orters facing a revolntlonary tiring sqnacl last Sr fll..
‘It iaave orEierea more titan ZOO ey ecntion s”
Iran's Judge
Has Penchant
For Execution
EXECUTIONER, From A17
roomful of admTrers, he took issue
with Carter's decision not to light all
the White House Christmas tree lights
until all the hostages were freed.
“How come he didn't do the same
thing during the Vietnam war when
so many people were killed or last
year when so many Iranians died
fighting the shah,” he asked.” If Car-
ter wants to deceive people, the hos-
tages will not be freed for 10 years.”
Slurping tea from a saucer, crack-
ing his pudgey knuckles and raising
his voice, he refused to say how many
killer squads were abroad tracking
down the revolution's quarry.
“They're trained by the Palestini-
ans,” he said. “And in Europe and
even America, they ai e fluent in Eng-
lish and French. And if they find any
of the past regime's officials they will
kill them.”
In addition to the imperial family,
he. listed as potential victims former
prime ministers Shahpour Bakhtiar,
Jamshid Amouzegar, Jaafar Sharif
Emami. former generals Gholam Au
Oveissi and Gholam Reza Azhari and
Hushang Ansary, former head of the
National Iranian Oil Company.
Was it not time to stop the revenge,
he was asked. “No,” he replied,” not
yet. I'll give a reward to anyone who
shoots someone on the list.”
He insisted on his determination to
“take my revenge in the name of all
the oppressed who suffered during
the shah.”
Khalkbali seemed ifi at ease only
when questioned about his controver-
sial role in the revolutiopary govern-
ment's unsuccessful efforts to sup-
press an uprising by the Kurds in fa-
vor of autonomy.
The Kurds accuse him of the whole-
sale ‘slaughter last summer of civilian
innocents at Paveh, Saqqez and Maba-
bad,, including cases such as the exec-
utions of a Kurdish doctor and a mer-
chant who refused to abandon his
faith and convert to Islam.
These very excesses and errors have
branded Khalkhali to such a point
that Kurdistan Democratic Party lead-
er Abdurahman Qassemlu recently
joked when asked why he had not or-
dered his assassination.
“Politically,” then Kurdish leader
asked,” do you think Khalkhali really
hurts us?”
