April 2 was the day when Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, the man who served as prime minister for 13 years during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was executed. It happened approximately two months after the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979. What follows is the full text of the indictment issued by the prosecutor of the Islamic Revolution of Iran regarding Hoveyda.
The first session of his trial, for which the presiding judge was Sheikh Sadeq Khalkhali, took place on March 15, 1979:
Islamic Revolutionary Court of Iran-Tehran
Mr. Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, son of Habibullah, with birth certificate number 3542 issued from Tehran, born on February 18, 1919, former minister of the imperial court and former prime minister of the overthrown Shah, is accused of:
1. Spreading corruption on earth
2. Waging war on God, the people and the deputy of Imam Mahdi (as)
3. Acting against the security and freedom of the country by forming cabinets controlled by the United States and Britain to safeguard colonialist interests
4. Acting against national sovereignty; interfering with the Majlis [Parliament] elections and appointing and dismissing ministers and commanders according to the wishes of foreign ambassadors
5. Handing over the underground resources of oil, copper and uranium to foreigners
6. Expanding the influence of imperialists affiliated with the US and its European allies in Iran through the destruction of local resources and turning Iran into a consumer market for foreign goods
7. Paying oil revenues to the Shah, Empress Farah and countries affiliated with the West; taking out loans from the US and Western governments at a high-interest rate and on humiliating terms and conditions
8. Destroying agriculture, industry and plantations
9. Direct involvement in spying activities in favor of the West and Zionism
10. Joining members of CENTO [Central Treaty Organization] and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] in repressing the nations of Palestine, Vietnam, and Iran; active membership in the Freemasons organization, as supported by existing documents and confession of the accused
12. Threating and committing acts of terrorism against justice-seeking people by murdering and assaulting them. In addition to violating their basic rights and freedoms granted to them by the Human Rights Declaration or divine laws, by arresting journalists and exercising censorship of the press and books
13. Founding and being the first secretary-general of the dictatorial Rastakhiz Party of Iran
14. Spreading cultural and moral corruption, trying to strengthen the colonialist foothold in Iran, including creating a capitulatory system of justice for American citizens
15. Direct participation in the smuggling of heroin while residing in France, in the company of Hassan-Ali Mansour
16. Giving people false reports through publishing newspapers with controlled editors, as well as censoring the news to be in line with the colonizers’ plots and the US-supported Pahlavi regime, with the goal of enslaving and further colonizing the Iranian nation.
Considering the:
- minutes of cabinet meetings
- reports provided by the Supreme Economic Council
- articles and complaints published and made by journalists and others, including Dr. Ali-Asghar Haj Seyyed Javadi
- Fatwas issued by scholars and religious authorities
- articles and columns written in newspapers
- documents obtained from SAVAK and the ones that exist in the Prime Minister’s office
- testimony of Dr. Azmun, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in the accused cabinet, Mr. Jafarian and Mr. Nikkhah at this court
- and the confessions of the accused;
the prosecutor requests the execution of the defendant and the confiscation of his property, since the crimes are evident.
The Persecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Iran”.
During the questions and answers at the last session of the trial, the prosecutor’s representative emphasized that “the court put a system on trial which replaced freedom with oppression and humanity with vulgarity, not just Mr. Hoveyda. Such a system does not believe in any form of freedom, whether Western, Eastern, or even medieval.” However, Hoveyda repeatedly said one thing in various forms: “I am not guilty; it is the system, and I was a part of that system.”
In his final defense, he also stated: “My hands are not stained with blood or tainted with ill-gotten wealth. However, if some young people were subjected to torture and suffering by the authorities during my tenure, I would say that I was not aware of such acts. However, I was the person in authority when such things happened, and now I can do nothing else except to ask for forgiveness. Nonetheless, not all my actions were bad. I submit to the court and have always relied on God.”
The text of the indictment of Amir-Abbas Hoveyda
In his memoirs, Hadi Ghaffari mentioned that “despite Hoveyda’s claim of knowing the Arabic language, he could not pronounce the Arabic phrase meaning “relying on God” correctly, and so people laughed at him. I was sitting next to him in the court and sarcastically told him that ‘what you have said meant a pistol!’. That is why later on a rumor spread that I had said, ‘I would kill you with this pistol.’”
Hoveyda’s main point during his defense was that: “In that system, the foreign policy, along with the military and security ones, were directly under the supervision of the Shah. The reason why there was such a hierarchy is another issue, but they were implemented under the Shah’s authority. If a crime was committed via the system, and I was unaware, am I guilty? Consider me guilty to the extent of my own fault…”
The issued sentence was confirmed and announced by Sadeq Khalkhali who later on in his memoirs, published by the Salam newspaper (September 30, 1992) wrote, “When the court started discussing the case privately, Mr. [Ahmad] Azari Qomi, [Ahmad] Jannati, and [Mohammad] Mohammadi Gilani were acting as the supervisors of and advisors to the court.”
The court announced the sentence in the afternoon, and, contrary to the expectations of the accused, it was carried out on April 7, 1979. Despite rumors that spread and were even mentioned in some books, his body was not transferred to Israel or France, rather, after being held in the morgue for a few days, he was buried in Behesht Zahra Cemetery, Tehran, under a different name.
Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution
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