Mehdi Hashemi
Encyclopedia
Mehdi Hashemi was an Iran
ian Shi'a cleric, and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards; he was executed by the new Islamic Republic
in its first decade. Officially he was guilty of sedition, murder, and related charges, but others suspect his true crime was opposition to the regime's secret dealings with the United States
(see Iran-Contra affair
).
in 1977, when SAVAK
arrested him for the vigilante murder of "prostitutes, homosexuals, and drug traffickers". He was also accused of murdering a conservative cleric who had publicly insulted liberal cleric Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the Grand Ayatollah - Mehdi Hashemi was also the brother of Hadi Hashemi, Ayatollah Montazeri's son-in-law. During this time he was supported by opponents of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
as an innocent victim framed by SAVAK, in an attempt "to tarnish the reputation of the clerical establishment."
Upon his release from prison by the successor security agency SAVAMA, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution
, Hashemi was celebrated as a "religious hero." He remained associated with Ayatollah Montazeri, and after the Ayatollah's son died in the bombing of the Islamic Republican Party
headquarters in 1981, Mehdi Hashemi took control of Montazeri's armed followers. He followed Montazeri's interpretations of the Islamic revolution and its implementation during increasingly fractious and competing understandings within the ruling elite, which sought to circumscribe Montazeri's influence in Lebanon, and tighten the Iranian government's grip on its Lebanese Shi'a clients. This led to factional conflicts, as different Iranian factions promoted Hezbollah or Amal
, another Shi'a group associated with the Lebanese government.
According to several sources, he came to head the liberation movements unit in the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, dealing with other minority Shi'a communities, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, then fighting the Israeli invasion
, and Afghan mujahideen units, then fighting the Soviet War in Afghanistan
. Some sources say Hashemi ran an organization out of Montazeri's office which sought to export the Islamic revolution to other Shi'a areas; other sources say he was in charge of the "Bureau of Assistance to the Islamic Movements in the World", which was tasked with spreading the Islamic Revolution throughout the Middle East
.
in releasing US citizens held hostage by Hezbullah in Lebanon. He organized a street demonstration in downtown Tehran to protest the arrival of secret American envoy Robert McFarlane
and leaked news of the dealings to Lebanese newspaper Ash-Shiraa
. The appearance of the story in the newspaper's November 3, 1986 issue, triggered a scandal in both Iran and the United States, as American government policy forbade selling weapons to Iran, and in Iran, America was condemned as "the Great Satan" and Israel as the "Little Satan". The dealings were known in the Western world initially as the "Irangate" "arms for hostages" scandal, or with the later diversion of funds, as the Iran-Contra Affair
.
, the former judge of the military tribunals who had recently been appointed minister of intelligence. According to Reysharhri's Political Memoirs, Hashemi had powerful patrons, and after a month-long investigation all the interrogators "had obtained was a taped interview in which the wise guy [i.e. Mehdi Hashemi] had cleverly planted deviant ideas."
However many more months of "thorough" interrogation of Hashemi including the application of 75 lashes for lying, and confrontation with "damaging confessions" from his 40 accomplices including his brother, produced more. After eight months and three different taped interviews Hashemi produced a taped confession aired on national television and headlined in newspapers as "I am Manifest Proof of Deviation." In it he confessed to "storing weapons, forging documents, criticizing the government, and sowing dissension among seminary students" and the revolutionary guards. Answering his own question of why he had done these things he explained that `carnal instincts` (nafsaniyat) had enticed him into `illicit relations` (ravabat) with SAVAK and Satan. In regards to his work in Montazeri's Bureau of Assistance to the Islamic Movements in the World he said
Khomeini revived the Special Clerical Court
in 1987, particularly to try Hashemi. In August 1987, after the confession was made public, Hashemi was tried by a Special Clerical Court
on charges of "sowing corruption on earth, inciting Fitna, succumbing to Satan, and desecrating the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution." Specifically according to Reyshahri this meant raiding and abetting the Mojahedin having an ongoing relationship with SAVAK, smuggling opium from Afghanistan, and eliminating one of Montazeri's rivals by `inducing the spread of cancer through his body.` At the same time Reyshahri took the opportunity to deny the `insidious notion` that Hashemi was being punished because of his opposition to the McFarlane visit, saying `Those spreading this false rumor are helping the Black House [i.e. the White House].`
Evidence that Hashemi was tortured to confess comes from an unsympathetic source. An anonymous Iranian author of a prison memoir has described how all political prisoners in Iran at that time were under intense pressure to denounce their former political beliefs and comrades, and as a result often "carefully scrutinized" the numerous video confessions of other prisoners prison officials played for the prisoners "to figure out which speakers had capitulated without much resistance and which had resisted to their utmost." Though mortal ideological enemies of Mehdi Hashemi - when the author and her fellow leftists saw Hashemi on video, they "spontaneously said to themselves, `He must have suffered unbearable tortures.`"
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian Shi'a cleric, and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards; he was executed by the new Islamic Republic
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
in its first decade. Officially he was guilty of sedition, murder, and related charges, but others suspect his true crime was opposition to the regime's secret dealings with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(see Iran-Contra affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
).
Background
Hashemi first became known to the Iranian public during the closing days of the Pahlavi dynastyPahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
in 1977, when SAVAK
SAVAK
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah on the recommendation of the British Government and with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور...
arrested him for the vigilante murder of "prostitutes, homosexuals, and drug traffickers". He was also accused of murdering a conservative cleric who had publicly insulted liberal cleric Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the Grand Ayatollah - Mehdi Hashemi was also the brother of Hadi Hashemi, Ayatollah Montazeri's son-in-law. During this time he was supported by opponents of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
as an innocent victim framed by SAVAK, in an attempt "to tarnish the reputation of the clerical establishment."
Upon his release from prison by the successor security agency SAVAMA, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, Hashemi was celebrated as a "religious hero." He remained associated with Ayatollah Montazeri, and after the Ayatollah's son died in the bombing of the Islamic Republican Party
Islamic Republican party
The Islamic Republican Party was a political party in Iran, formed in mid-1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini establish theocracy in Iran...
headquarters in 1981, Mehdi Hashemi took control of Montazeri's armed followers. He followed Montazeri's interpretations of the Islamic revolution and its implementation during increasingly fractious and competing understandings within the ruling elite, which sought to circumscribe Montazeri's influence in Lebanon, and tighten the Iranian government's grip on its Lebanese Shi'a clients. This led to factional conflicts, as different Iranian factions promoted Hezbollah or Amal
Amal Movement
Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...
, another Shi'a group associated with the Lebanese government.
According to several sources, he came to head the liberation movements unit in the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, dealing with other minority Shi'a communities, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, then fighting the Israeli invasion
1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
, and Afghan mujahideen units, then fighting the Soviet War in Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
. Some sources say Hashemi ran an organization out of Montazeri's office which sought to export the Islamic revolution to other Shi'a areas; other sources say he was in charge of the "Bureau of Assistance to the Islamic Movements in the World", which was tasked with spreading the Islamic Revolution throughout the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Opposition to arms dealing with the US
Mehdi Hashemi opposed the Iranian government's efforts to obtain scarce weapons and spares for the Iran–Iraq War from the United States and Israel, and provide assistance to the Reagan AdministrationReagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
in releasing US citizens held hostage by Hezbullah in Lebanon. He organized a street demonstration in downtown Tehran to protest the arrival of secret American envoy Robert McFarlane
Robert McFarlane
Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane was a National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan, serving from 1983 through 1985.After a career in the Marines, he became part of the Reagan administration, and was a leading architect of the Strategic Defense Initiative for defending the United States...
and leaked news of the dealings to Lebanese newspaper Ash-Shiraa
Ash-Shiraa
Ash-Shiraa is a Lebanese magazine. It was the first to report that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran, a scandal that was later revealed to have been part of an arms-for-hostages deal ....
. The appearance of the story in the newspaper's November 3, 1986 issue, triggered a scandal in both Iran and the United States, as American government policy forbade selling weapons to Iran, and in Iran, America was condemned as "the Great Satan" and Israel as the "Little Satan". The dealings were known in the Western world initially as the "Irangate" "arms for hostages" scandal, or with the later diversion of funds, as the Iran-Contra Affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
.
Arrest
After Hashemi's followers kidnapped a Syrian official in Tehran in October 1986, and shortly before the public exposure of the Irangate scandal, the Iranian government announced Hashemi had been arrested for treason along with 40 associates including his brother Hadi Hashemi. His prosecution was handled by the Mohammad ReyshahriMohammad Reyshahri
Mohammad Reyshahri , best known as Reyshahri, is an Iranian politician and cleric who was first Iranian Minister of Intelligence of Islamic Republic of Iran from 1984 to 1989 in cabinet of Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi.-Biography:Reyshahri was born in Rey.He married the daughter of Ayatollah...
, the former judge of the military tribunals who had recently been appointed minister of intelligence. According to Reysharhri's Political Memoirs, Hashemi had powerful patrons, and after a month-long investigation all the interrogators "had obtained was a taped interview in which the wise guy [i.e. Mehdi Hashemi] had cleverly planted deviant ideas."
However many more months of "thorough" interrogation of Hashemi including the application of 75 lashes for lying, and confrontation with "damaging confessions" from his 40 accomplices including his brother, produced more. After eight months and three different taped interviews Hashemi produced a taped confession aired on national television and headlined in newspapers as "I am Manifest Proof of Deviation." In it he confessed to "storing weapons, forging documents, criticizing the government, and sowing dissension among seminary students" and the revolutionary guards. Answering his own question of why he had done these things he explained that `carnal instincts` (nafsaniyat) had enticed him into `illicit relations` (ravabat) with SAVAK and Satan. In regards to his work in Montazeri's Bureau of Assistance to the Islamic Movements in the World he said
I now realize that despicable sinners like myself had no business inside the heir-designate's office. I thank God that I have been removed from that office.and pleaded with those who shared his "deviant ideas to return to the correct path ..."
Khomeini revived the Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics is an Iranian court system for examining transgressions within the clerical establishment. It tries Shia Muslim clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial...
in 1987, particularly to try Hashemi. In August 1987, after the confession was made public, Hashemi was tried by a Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics is an Iranian court system for examining transgressions within the clerical establishment. It tries Shia Muslim clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial...
on charges of "sowing corruption on earth, inciting Fitna, succumbing to Satan, and desecrating the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution." Specifically according to Reyshahri this meant raiding and abetting the Mojahedin having an ongoing relationship with SAVAK, smuggling opium from Afghanistan, and eliminating one of Montazeri's rivals by `inducing the spread of cancer through his body.` At the same time Reyshahri took the opportunity to deny the `insidious notion` that Hashemi was being punished because of his opposition to the McFarlane visit, saying `Those spreading this false rumor are helping the Black House [i.e. the White House].`
Evidence that Hashemi was tortured to confess comes from an unsympathetic source. An anonymous Iranian author of a prison memoir has described how all political prisoners in Iran at that time were under intense pressure to denounce their former political beliefs and comrades, and as a result often "carefully scrutinized" the numerous video confessions of other prisoners prison officials played for the prisoners "to figure out which speakers had capitulated without much resistance and which had resisted to their utmost." Though mortal ideological enemies of Mehdi Hashemi - when the author and her fellow leftists saw Hashemi on video, they "spontaneously said to themselves, `He must have suffered unbearable tortures.`"
Execution
Hashemi was executed in 1987 before his verdict was announced. This was reportedly done to preclude the intervention on Hashemi's behalf by Montazeri, according to prosecutor Reyshahri. The execution was a blow to Ayatollah Montazeri, who had pleaded with Ayatollah Khomeini on Hashemi's behalf saying he had "known him inside out since our childhood. He is a devout Muslim, a militant revolutionary, and a great admirer of the Imam." Yet another suspicious note was that despite the extremely serious nature of the charges, only one of Hashemi's few dozen co-defendants was executed - the others were all pardoned or given light sentences.See also
- Special Clerical CourtSpecial Clerical CourtSpecial Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics is an Iranian court system for examining transgressions within the clerical establishment. It tries Shia Muslim clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial...
- Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali MontazeriGrand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali MontazeriGrand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri Najafabadi was a prominent Iranian scholar, Islamic theologian, Shiite Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution in 1979...
- Iran-Contra AffairIran-Contra AffairThe Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...