Sadegh Khalkhali
Sadegh Khalkhali | |
---|---|
Tehran Province[1] | |
Majority | 1,048,284 (32.87%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Mohammed-Sadeq Sadeqi Givi 27 July 1926 Iran |
Died | 26 November 2003 Tehran, Iran | (aged 77)
Political party |
|
Children | 3 |
Alma mater | Qom Seminary |
Occupation | Judge; Executioner |
Nickname | Hanging Judge[2] |
Mohammed Sadeq Givi Khalkhali (
Career and activities
Khalkhali was one of Khomeini's circle of disciples as far back as 1955
On 24 February 1979, Khalkhali was chosen by
Khalkhali ordered the
Pleas for clemency poured in from all over the world and it was said that Khalkhali was told by telephone to stay the execution. Khalkhali replied that he would go and see what was happening. He then went to Hoveyda and either shot him himself or instructed a minion to do the deed. "I'm sorry," he told the person at the other end of the telephone, "the sentence has already been carried out."[4]
Another version of the story has Khalkhali saying that while presiding over Hoveida's execution he made sure communication links between
By trying Hoveida, Khalkhali effectively undermined the position of the provisional prime minister of the Islamic Revolution, the moderate Mehdi Bazargan, who disapproved of the Islamic Revolutionary Court and sought to establish the Revolution's reputation for justice and moderation.
Khalkhali held antipathy towards pre-Islamic Iran. In 1979 he wrote a book "branding king
At the height of the Iran hostage crisis in 1980 following the failure of the American rescue mission Operation Eagle Claw and crash of U.S. helicopters killing their crews, Khalkhali appeared on television "ordering the bags containing the dismembered limbs of the dead servicemen to be split open so that the blackened remains could be picked over and photographed," to the anger of American viewers.[4]
Khalkhali, in his positions in the Islamic Revolutionary government, made it his mission to eliminate the community of Bahá'ís in Iran (the largest non-Muslim religious minority). Bahá'ís were stripped of any civil and human rights they had previously been permitted and more than 200 executed or killed in the early years of the Islamic Republic. All Bahá'í properties were seized, including its holiest site, the House of the Báb in Shiraz, which was turned over by the government to Khalkhali for the activities of the Fada'iyan-i-Islam.[17][18] The site was subsequently razed, along with the entire neighborhood, for the construction of a mosque and a new road. In addition to presiding over the Islamic Revolutionary Court that brought about the execution of dozens of members of elected Bahá'í Councils, Khalkhali murdered a Bahá'í, Muhammad Muvahhed, who disappeared in 1980 into the revolutionary prison system. It was later reported that Khalkhali personally went to Muvahhed's cell, demanded that he recant his faith and become a Muslim. When Muvahhed refused, Khalkhali covered his face with a pillow and shot him in the head.[19]
Khalkhali later investigated and ordered the execution of many activists for federalism in
In December 1980 his influence waned when he was forced to resign from the revolutionary courts because of his failure to account for $14 million seized through drug raids, confiscations, and fines, although some believe this as much the doing of President Bani-Sadr and the powerful head of the
In an interview, Khalkhali personally confirmed ordering more than 100 executions[citation needed], although many sources believe that by the time of his death he had sent 8,000 men and women to their deaths. In some cases he was the executioner[citation needed], where he executed his victims using machine guns[citation needed]. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro he is quoted as saying, "If my victims were to come back on earth, I would execute them again, without exceptions."[4]
Khalkhali was elected as representative for
Khalkhali sided with reformists after the election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997, although he was never really accepted by the movement.[24]
Later years and death
Khalkhali retired to Qom, where he taught Islamic seminarians.
He died in 2003, at the age of 77, of cancer and heart disease.
Personal life
Khalkhali was married and had a son and two daughters. His daughter, Fatemeh Sadeqi, though born in a restrictive Islamic environment, has attended university, attained PhD and is now known for her secular views.[29] She was the author of "Why We Say No to Forced Hijab" — a widely circulated 2008 essay.[30]
Electoral history
Year | Election | Votes | % | Rank | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | Constitutional Experts |
122,217 | 4.8 | 18th | Lost[31] |
1980 | Parliament | 123,136 | 78.9 | 1st | Won[32] |
1982 | Assembly of Experts | 1,048,284 | 32.87 | 15th | Went to run-off |
Assembly of Experts run off | No Data Available | 1st | Won | ||
1984 | Parliament | 144,160 | 67.1 | 1st | Won[33] |
1988 | Parliament | 106,647 | 54.8 | 1st | Won[34] |
1990 | Assembly of Experts | — | Disqualified[35] | ||
1992 | Parliament | — | Disqualified[36] |
See also
- Islamic Revolutionary Court
- List of ayatollahs
- List of members in the First Term of the Council of Experts
References
- ^ "1982 Assembly of Experts Election", The Iran Social Science Data Portal, Princeton University, retrieved 10 August 2015
- ^ https://www.economist.com/obituary/2003/12/11/sadeq-khalkhali
- ^ Sadegh Khalkhali The Guardian website
- ^ a b c d e f g Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali The Daily Telegraph 28 November 2003
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
- ^ "Iranian 'Hanging Judge' Dies at 77". AP NEWS. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
- ^ "Sadeq Khalkhali (Iranian judge) - Encyclopædia Britannica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali. Obituary in The Guardian, 1 December 2003 [1]
- ^ Taheri, Amir, Spirit of Allah : Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution , Adler and Adler c1985, p. 113
- ^ Taheri, Spirit of Allah, (1985), p. 187
- ^ Molavi, Afshin, The Soul of Iran, Norton and Co., (2005), p. 9
- ISBN 978-1-84511-127-4. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
- ^ Hoveyda’s Tragic Fate
- ^ Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian, (University of California Press, 1999), p. 127
- ^ Molavi, Afshan, The Soul of Iran, Norton, (2005), p. 14
- ^ Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors, Touchstone, (2000), p. 168
- ISBN 978-0-920904-13-8.
- JSTOR 40971483.
- ISBN 978-1-78607-586-4.
- ^ Bakhash, Shaul, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution, New York, Basic Books, (1984), p. 111
- ^ a b Bakhash, Reign of the Ayatollahs, (1984), p. 111
- ^ Qaddafi Meets an Ayatollah The New York Times, 2 January 1992
- ^ Brumberg, Daniel, Reinventing Khomeini : The Struggle for Reform in Iran, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 175
- ^ a b Fathi, Nazila (29 November 2003). "Sadegh Khalkhali, 77, a Judge in Iran Who Executed Hundreds". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
- ^ Obituary from The Economist
- ^ Obituary The Daily Telegraph
- ^ Obituary The Guardian (gives his full name as Mohammed Sadeq Givi Khalkhali)
- ^ صبا, صادق (29 November 2003). "BBC Persian" اصلاح طلبان و در گذشت خلخالی (in Persian). BBCPersian. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
- ^ Afshari, Reza (4 November 2010). "Human Rights, Relevance of Culture and Irrelevance of Cultural Relativism". Rooz online. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
- ^ Goldstein, Dana (17 June 2009). "IRAN AND THE VEIL". The American Prospect. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ISBN 9781850430773
- Iranian Parliament, The Iran Social Science Data Portal, p. 79
- Iranian Parliament, The Iran Social Science Data Portal, p. 206
- Iranian Parliament, The Iran Social Science Data Portal, p. 317
- ^ "پنج دوره خبرگان؛ رد صلاحیتها" (in Persian). BBC Persian. 29 February 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- JSTOR 4328663.)
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Further reading
V. S. Naipaul interviews Khalkhali in two of his better-known books
- ISBN 978-0-394-71195-9
- ISBN 978-0-316-64361-0
External links
- Qaddafi Meets an Ayatollah 2 January 1992