It was during the last days of September 1970. Not a few days had passed since the massacre of Palestinians in Jordan (Black September). The propaganda campaign of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, the political friend of King Husayn and Jordan, unilaterally and biasedly spread the news of the incident in the Iranian media. As usual, Sayyed Ali Khamenei went to his father’s house to visit him and discuss jurisprudential issues. When they were sitting in the house the doorbell rang. Lady Khadijeh went to open the door. Moments later, she returned while being worried and said that two SAVAK officers [possibly the Shahrhani officers] are looking for you. He asked: What did you say to them? The mother said, “I said he is not here.” He thought that they would soon go to his house and that he must be home before them. He said goodbye to his parents and went out to his house from the other door. The situation there was normal. He discussed the matter with his wife. She helped him get ready; change his clothes, grab his nails, cut his beard and mustache, all that was necessary before going to prison. Then he started working on the translation of the book “Sulh al-Hasan” [The Peace Treaty of al-Hasan]. One of his activities in those days was translating this book. He has translated part of it. The publisher insisted that the rest should be done as soon as possible. The translated part was typeset and ready to be edited. He arranged all of them so that after his arrest, if possible, they could be finalized.
He ate his lunch, performed the noon and evening prayers, and sat down waiting for the Shahrbani officers to come and take him to the prison. Suddenly it came to his mind that it is a good idea to hide for a while and finish translating the book in a safe place; then, whatever happens, will be welcome. He used the Holy Quran for taking omens several times. All the verses encouraged him to hide. He took all the translations, the typeset papers, the book, and everything related to the book “Sulh al-Hasan.” Mrs. Khojasteh who was very happy asked: Where are you going? He said: I don’t know; I just want to finish the translation. He kissed the faces of his sons. He said goodbye. When he came out of the house, first looked around but didn’t see anyone. He went straight to Gholamreza Qodsi’s house. He knocked on the door. welcomed him with surprise. After knowing about his intention, Mr. Qodsi suggested he would stay there, but he refused.
One of the relatives drove him to Akhlamad village. He was there for a month or so. The translation was finished. He sent the book to Mr. Hoseyn Nayeri, known as “Tehrani.” Now he could return to Mashhad because whatever will happen would be welcome. He passed one month in such a condition.
Being captured
Being sure about Shahrbani’s delay in arresting Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Sheykhan ordered one of his professional forces, Mahmoud Ghazanfari, to arrest him. On September 24, 1970, at noon, it became clear to them that the son is at his father’s house. At 1:45 a.m., officers rushed to his house. First, they faced the resistance of Mrs. Khadijeh Mirdamadi, her mother. Mostafa, his four-year-old son, who came with him to his grandfather’s house, witnessed the incident; he was astonished and terrified. He said goodbye to him and asked Mrs. Khadijeh to take care of him. Before leaving the house, one of the SAVAK officers insulted Mrs. Khadijeh. Sayyed Khamenei also responded to him using the same literature.
A few hours later, Sayyed Khamenei was handed over to the 77th Mashhad Division. It was written in a letter to the commander of the division that he should be imprisoned for 48 hours without being allowed to have a visitor and that he should be handed over to the SAVAK on Saturday morning, September 26, 1970. At the SAVAK headquarters, he was taken to the head office of the Mashhad Security Organization. He looked tired and exhausted. He pretended to be studying the case on his desk. Sayyed Khamenei also had his own way. This time, too, without permission, he chose a soft sofa, sat cross-legged, pulled out a cigarette and lit it. In the meantime, one of the interrogators entered the room with a file in his hand, went to Sheykhan and took some papers from the case in front of him, and also the boss shook his head to show his dissatisfaction as well as the increase of the accusations of the accused. In an angry tone, Sheykhan ordered to take him away. They took him to a room where a number of SAVAK agents were standing in a circle. Sayyed Khamenei was put among them. They began to insult him. Sayyed Khamenei considered that obscene circle as being contemptuous. He saw people who were devoid of the usual human personality.
The first interrogation
His interrogation began at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Ghazanfari, who was present as an interrogator, talked a lot and heard little. He made great efforts to make Sayyed Khamenei acknowledge the reports of SAVAK sources and the statements made by the detainees during the interrogation but to no void. In the first interrogation session, SAVAK could just get this sentence: “I consider Ayatollah Khomeyni an unquestionable and just mujtahid; I am one of his followers.”
In line with the central office of SAVAK and to obtain the order of the authorities, Sheykhan said that the available evidence and the method of interrogation of Sayyed Khamenei could not provide strong evidence for the military court, asking the governor of Mashhad to set up the meeting of the social security commission as soon as possible. He hoped to get Sayyed Khamenei’s deportation order from the commission.
Meanwhile, Naser Moqaddam, the head of the Third General Office, sent a telegram asking Sheykhan to hand over the case of Sayyed Khamenei, which has been completed, to the military court.
Sheykhan did not like this telegram. He immediately asked Ghazanfari, “Because we do not have the good cause and only the report of the sources has been confirmed, the military court will acquit him. Convince the Central Office to let the Social Security Commission issue the order of exile.”
A day later, a telegram was sent to the Third General Office, reminding them that, “On September 24, 1970, Sayyed Ali Khamenei was arrested but despite numerous reports of sources about his movements and actions against the regime, he denied any activity in this regard and explicitly stated that these reports are false. Given that his activities have been observed by the sources of information and that he has denied all the accusations during the interrogation, the military court will naturally acquit him. If possible, SAVAK should call for the meeting of the Social Security Commission and issuing the order of his exile for three years.”
After receiving this suggestion, Naser Moqaddam wrote to Sheykhan that the case of Sayyed Ali Khamenei should be completed and handed over to the military court, as previously announced. However, transferring Sayyed Khamenei’s case to a military court was not something that Sheykhan would favour and he ordered that the case be made in such a way that it could be brought before a court.
Sayyed Khamenei’s temporary detention order was issued on September 27, 1970, by Maj. Hasan Esmaili, an interrogator at Branch No.1 of the Ordinary Court No. 18 in Mashhad.
The second interrogation
On September 28, 1970, at 11 a.m., interrogations began. In the first half of his interrogation, the interrogator treated him with composure and calmness. He tried very hard to prove that Sayyed Khamenei follows the same ideologies and views of Imam Khomeyni and to record it as a crime. His repeated questions did not come to fruition, and it seemed that in the second half of the interrogation, he has lost his temper. The interrogation ended at 1:30 p.m.
The third interrogation
The lack of evidence, the failure to find out about his ideologies, and generally the incompleteness of the case, forced SAVAK to set up an interrogation session for the third time. This time, Sheykhan asked Hoseyn Nahidi to interrogate him. Nahidi, for whatever reason, held the third session briefly; he did not start an argument with him and by repeating one question he was trying to discover the ideas and views of Sayyed Khamenei. That day was October 1, 1970.
SAVAK’s empty hands
Everything indicated that SAVAK’s hands are empty in the case against Sayyed Ali Khamenei. The same lack of evidence led Sheykhan to once again ask Naser Moqaddam, the head of the Third General Office, to acknowledge the deportation of Sayyed Khamenei. This time, he also pointed out that the charges against the accused should be evaluated and confirmed in the judicial department of the Third General Office which will take a long time. Apparently, no response was given to this letter, and even if there had been an answer, sending Sayyed Khamenei into exile was not approved. On the October 6, 1969, the court case against Sayyed Khamenei provided by SAVAK was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office No. 18 in Mashhad, and the next day it was handed over to the interrogator.
Nearly three weeks have passed since Sayyed Khamenei’s arrest. He had gone through three interrogations. No one was allowed to see him. He had been about to be imprisoned three times in the past and had been on trial in the court of colonels. He was going to become a professional political prisoner.
On October 6, 1970, he wrote a letter to the head of the Khorasan office of SAVAK, protesting his unjustified detention, asking why his case had not been dealt with through the normal procedure, and finally calling his arrest unjustifiable.
The Dezhban of the 77th Division handed the letter to the Sheykhan.
It had been five days since the case had reached the military court, and the interrogator was working on it. The more he looked into the case, the fewer charges he could find.
The situation in the prison was not good. Autumn was about to end. Sayyed Khamenei’s clothes were not good for clod days. Keeping the usual cleanliness was impossible or probably they had not let him do so. Without SAVAK’s permission, the army could not make a decision regarding this prisoner, even if the decision was to give him an extra blanket, let alone allowing him to have more clothes. On that day (October 18, 1970), Major Hasan Esmaili took him to the courthouse for questioning. His questions were nothing more than what the three SAVAK interrogators had asked: repeating the same questions and hearing the same answers.
On the day (October 24, 1970), Sheykhan allowed the prisoner’s family to bring him more clothes. Four days later, this permission was issued to the army through a letter. It can be assumed that these clothes and other things were given to him at the beginning of November. On November 8, 1970, the anti-intelligence of the 77th Division informed the army Prosecutor’s Office about the permission of SAVAK to give the prisoner more clothes.
Continuing the translation in prison
Among the things brought to him by his family was the translation of the book “al-Islam wa Mushkilat al-Hadharah” by Sayyid Qutb. He must have asked them to bring it so that he could study it. He could not finish the translation of this book in prison in the year 1967 but Sayyed Hadi Khamenei, with his efforts and enthusiasm, published the book in 1969. Sayyed Hadi translated the untranslated part into Persian.
After reviewing previous sections, he prepared the book for publication. He had some works which could be done during the days of imprisonment.
The chosen name of this book was “an indictment against Western civilization and a perspective on the mission of Islam.” This work took him about a month. He gave the book to Sayyed Hadi on the day of the meeting or told someone else to deliver it to him, reminding him of the publisher’s address. It was in those days that the translation of the book “Sulh al-Hasan” was published and was brought for him in prison. The army investigator did not find any charges in Sayyed Khamenei’s case. Eventually, he decided to justify the punishment of Sayyed Ali Khamenei and legalize the three-month prison sentence, which was probably the minimum sentence that SAVAK wanted.
Archive of Ayatollah Khamenei
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