The Fortieth Day after Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini’s Demise

Ayatollah Khamenei
The Fortieth Day after Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini’s Demise

The Seminary of Mashhad issued a statement announcing that the fortieth-day memorial ceremony to commemorate Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini will be held on December 2, 1977. Certainly, the government did not allow them to hold such a ceremony but the students of Navvab Seminary held a ceremony in commemoration of Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini during which Mr. Khamenei prevented the possible clashes between the seminarians and Shahrbani forces.

The Intelligence and Security Agency could not accept the recent movements in Mashhad and some other cities, in which this time not only the combatant clerics but also academics and the masses were engaged; SAVAK could not see the popularity of Imam Khomeini. SAVAK had to show itself, and this was impossible except by arresting several clerics. Therefore, SAVAK decided to deport the following clerics, who have a long history of provoking people to disrupt the order of the country:

1. Ali-Asghar Dastgheyb, an extremist and combatant cleric living in Shiraz.

2. Ali-Mohammad Dastgheyb, an extremist and combatant cleric living in Shiraz.

3. Sayyed Ali Khamenei, an extremist and combatant cleric living in Mashhad.

4. Shaykh Ali Moradkhani-Arangeh, an extremist cleric living in Mashhad.

5. Hoseyn Emadi, an extremist cleric living in Mashhad.

Interestingly, the report was approved by the head of SAVAK on December 11 before the Commission for Protecting Social Security held a meeting in the cities of Mashhad and Shiraz, the authorities in Tehran issued an exile order and announced it.

Sheykhan, who had been eagerly trying to send Mr. Khamenei into exile, after knowing about Tehran’s decision, on December 14 set up the commission at 9 a.m. in the Mashhad governor’s office in which the decision of Tehran of course nominally was made again, whereas the decision in this regard should have been made in Mashhad first and then approved by Tehran. 

Mr. Khamenei, a seminary teacher, was deported to Iranshahr for three years and Shaykh Ali Tehrani was deported to Chabahar for three years and Hoseyn Emadi, known as Shaykh Hoseyn Shahroudi was deported to Sirjan for three years. A few hours before the beginning of the meeting of the Commission of Protecting Social Security, SAVAK arrested Mr. Khamenei!

The Last Arrest

It was on December 14, 1977, that someone came to Mr. Khamenei’s house; it was more than an hour before the call to prayer. As usual, he left the room to open the door. Everyone was asleep. When he opened the door, he saw gunmen some of whom holding guns and some machine guns. Immediately he tried to close the door but they did not let him do so. They started beating him mostly on the legs. They beat him on the leg with the tip of their shoes. One of them took out a handcuff and tied Mr. Khamenei’s hands with it. His fourth child Meysam was two months old. They started searching everywhere. It was clear that they would search the house completely. Mrs. Khojasteh pulled herself towards the library and, without being noticed even by Mr. Khamenei, collected writings, leaflets and confidential documents that could accuse her husband of pursuing political activities against the regime and hid them under the carpet. When they came to search the library, they took any books or writings that could be used against him. These, like previous books and manuscripts, were never given back to him. He asked his wife to give him some food and to wake up Mojtaba and Masoud, who were still asleep so that he could say goodbye to them. 

They had brought a Jeep to the alley leading to his house to move Mr. Khamenei to another place. They did not tie a blindfold over his eyes. They put him in the car and one of them was saying on a handheld two-way radio that: “eagle... eagle... eagle... we have arrested him... we have arrested him.” The Jeep went to the SAVAK headquarters. In the basement of the building, there was a narrow corridor both sides of which were cells. “After a while, they brought me food and put me in a car. The car drove out of town. I didn’t know where their destination is and what they want to do. Of course, this time the situation was very different from the past. A normal car... without a blindfold... going out of town... all of these things made the current situation different from the past.” When the car stopped near the gendarmerie station, he realized that this time his destination is not the prison, but he is going to be sent into exile. 

A letter was sent by the commander of the Khorasan Gendarmerie to the commander of the Gendarmerie’s regiment in Mashhad that “two trained officers should take the above-mentioned person to Iranshahr.” Parviz Sabeti, director-general of the third office of SAVAK, sent a telegram to the head of SAVAK in Sistan and Baluchestan, saying that “the Commission for Protecting the Social Security of Mashhad has decided that Ali Khamenei, one of the extremist clerics of Mashhad, on a charge of inciting people and disturbing the public order of the city is sentenced to a three-year compulsory residence in Iranshahr and will be sent to that area. Necessary actions should be taken with respect to him.”

On December 19, they arrived in Zahedan. He prayed in a mosque. They ate breakfast and after about an hour they left for Iranshahr by bus. After meeting with Mr. Raoufi, they drove him to Fatemieh. They offered their maghrib prayers there. Mr. Khamenei was very tired. He said he had to lie down and take a rest. Mr. Raoufi suggested that they go to his house and take a rest there, but he preferred not to go there.

That night was the eve of Tasu’a, and the Shi’ahs of Iranshahr had come to Fatemieh to hold a mourning ceremony. It was there that he saw Shaykh Mohammad-Javad Hojjati-Kermani. They went to Mr. Raoufi’s house together and stayed there for three or four days. Mr. Raoufi’s insistence on hosting them did not make the exiles change their minds and stay in his house.

Unlike in Dey which only a few numbers of people would come and visit Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Hojjati-Kermani, in February and March, many people came to visit them such that this became a serious issue for Iranshahr SAVAK and it had to assign some of its forces the task of dealing with this issue. Between February 15 and February 27, 1978, 29 people from far and near cities came to see the two exiled clerics. Visitors were sometimes close friends, such as Mr. Vaez-Tabasi and Mr. Hasheminejad, sometimes close relatives such as Ali Hojjati-Kermani, and sometimes seminarians and university students, clerics, and ordinary people. However, monitoring the new passengers was the order given by Mr. Rezvani, the head of the Sistan and Baluchestan SAVAK, to the Iranshahr branch.

Ayatollah Sadouqi was one of the scholars who came to Iranshahr to visit Mr. Khamenei. Ayatollah Sadouqi along with a group from Yazd came to his place a few days before Norouz of the year 1978. Mr. Kazem Rashedpour-Yazdi was one of those who accompanied Ayatollah Sadouqi. They left Iranshahr for Chabahar to visit Mr. Naser Makarem-Shirazi. On March 29, 1978, the city of Yazd witnessed a bloody demonstration. On this day, a ceremony was held at the Hazireh Mosque for commemorating the uprising of the people of Tabriz, which took place forty days ago on February 18. The speaker of this assembly was Shaykh Kazem Rashedpour-Yazdi. He was arrested and sentenced to three years of compulsory residence in Iranshahr. 

Having numerous relationships and observing the media, Mr. Khamenei was aware of the events of the Revolution since his arrival in Iranshahr: the incident of January 9, in Qom, the incident of February 18, in Tabriz, and finally the events of March 29 in Yazd.

A few days after the bloody incident of March 29, in Yazd, Ayatollah Sadouqi sent a short letter to Mr. Khamenei asking him to talk about the current events in the country. Therefore, he decided to write his views to Ayatollah Sadouqi in the form of a long letter. That day was March 29.

Before sending the letter and his statement to Mr. Sadouqi, Mr. Khamenei made copies of the letter so that to distribute them. When Amir Majd left for Iranshahr to visit Mr. Khamenei, at his request he took one of those copies to Mashhad to give them to Mr. Vaez-Tabasi or Mohammad-Reza Mohami for reproduction and distribution.

However, Mr. Khamenei’s letter was widely distributed in Iran both in Mashhad and in other cities in the form of a proclamation. Mashhad SAVAK, which was annoyed that this letter has been distributed in the city and the training centres, sent a message to the SAVAK office in Tehran suggesting that Mr. Khamenei and anyone involved in distributing the letter should be arrested and handed over to the military court.

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