Iran: Update to IRN28431.E of 23 December 1997on the Nation of Iran Party ("Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran", the National Front, the Iranian Nation Party, the Iranian National Party, Party of the People of Iran), and the deaths of Dariush (Daryush) and Paravaneh (Paravanah) Foruhar (Forouhar, Forohar)

On 22 November 1998 Dariush Foruhar, and his wife Paravaneh, were murdered in their home in Tehran (UNCHR 28 Dec. 1998; AP 21 Nov. 1999; Star Tribune 6 Dec. 1998). They had been stabbed to death (ibid.; The Baltimore Sun 24 Feb. 1999; AP 17 July 1999). Foruhar has been identified as the leader of the Iran Nation Party (United Nations 28 Dec. 1998; AP 17 July 1999; ibid. 21 Nov. 1999; Xinhua 23 Jan. 2000), the Iranian Nation Party (The Baltimore Sun 24 Feb. 1999), Iranian Nation's Party (The Iran Brief 9 Aug. 1998), the Nation Party (Hezb-e Mellat) (Khordad 14 Nov. 1999), and the Iranian People's Party (Al-Sharq al-Awsat 6 Jan. 1999; Frankfurter Rundschau 3 Aug. 1999).

The following chronology of reports provides information on Iranian authorities' reaction to the murders, as well as on the party with which the Forhuars were affiliated. The day after the Foruhars' murders a former president of Iran, Abolhassan Banisadr, "accused Tehran's 'regime of terror' of being responsible" (AFP 23 Nov. 1998).

The Star Tribune reported on 6 December 1998 that President Khatami had "condemned" the attacks, and that the murders had provoked an "outcry" in Iran.

The funerals of the Foruhars were reported by the press to have been attended by 6,000 people (UNCHR 28 Dec. 1998).

The Iran Nation Party was an unregistered but tolerated entity on Iran's political landscape. President Khatami termed the murders 'a repugnant crime'. The President and the head of the judiciary called for the immediate identification and bringing to trial of the perpetrators. A parallel with earlier unsolved murders of politicians was being drawn and rumours of a political dimensions to the deaths persisted. (ibid.).

A "senior security official" from Iran was reported by Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 6 January 1999 to have defected to Germany.

The source said that the information that this security official has in his possession will harm neither Khatami nor his position, and instead will, if revealed, strengthen the president's position and show that the quarters that killed opposition National Iranian People's Party leader Dariyush Foruhar, his wife Parvaneh, and three Iranian writers and thinkers over the past two months were not motivated by power or Zionism, as claimed by the leaders of the conservative trend and their press, but that it was these leaders who ordered the killings and their execution (ibid.).

The Baltimore Sun reported on 24 February 1999 that the home of the Foruhars had been visited "nearly every Thursday" since their murders by mourners who litcandles and sang freedom songs. In the article, The Baltimore Sun reports:

The violence highlighted the battle raging between Khatami's supporters in the government and conservative clerics empowered by Islamic rule.

It also generated an unusually candid public debate in Iranian newspapers and among leading intellectuals that pressured the government to act against the extremists here.

Despite the public outcry over the murders late last year of Foruhar and his wife, both members of a minor opposition party, the assaults on Khatami's populist platform from conservative factions and vigilantes continued. Pro-democracy demonstrations were broken up; some leftist newspapers were shut down. Â…

Khatami, the philosopher cleric, vigorously pursued the Â… intelligence agents accused of the Foruhars' murders. Arrests were made ....

In a startling admission, the intelligence minister, Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, conceded that members of his agency were involved in the Foruhars' murders and he resigned.

"This is the first time in Iranian history that the intelligence ministry is accepting that they did this. So accountability is being built on this," said Nasser Hadian, a political scientist at Tehran University.

Yet the power struggle continues between Khatami – who commands popular support – and the clerics backing rightist leader Khameni, in whom the constitution invests supreme authority. 

A test of strength will occur Friday when Iran holds the first municipal elections in its modern history. Â…

Those gathered in the living room of the Foruhar house on a recent Thursday were mostly students, relatives and followers of the small opposition Iranian Nation Party that wants a secular, democratic Iran. 

They are among the most outspoken of the 20 million Iranians who elected Khatami president in 1997 in a mandate unseen before in the 20-year history of the Islamic state.

"With 20 million votes, we thought he could do a lot more. We see now to put one step forward, he Khatami has to put two steps behind," said Khosro Seif, a close friend of the slain Foruhars and a member of the Iranian Nation Party.

A report by a "reformist newspaper" stated that three members of "the small Iran Nation Party" – Khosrow Seif, Behzad Namazi, and Mehran Mirabdolbaghi – were arrested on 16 July 1999 in the aftermath of the student demonstrations (AP 17 July1 999). AP stated, with respect to the Forhars' murders, that "authorities have arrested rogue Intelligence Ministry agents" (ibid.).

In a 17 July 1999 article, The Washington Post wrote the following about the Foruhars who "always criticized Iran's lack of freedoms":

Â…they were a couple whose lives were winding down in a trickle of homespun protest leaflets and small-time meetings.

Which is why their violent deaths so moved Iran in a way their lives of political action never did, dramatizing in a tragic way the nation's struggle to decide what type of society it is to become. Others have been killed too, and in a similar fashion. But the murders of Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar last Nov. 22 have remained a symbol and a rallying cry, still vivid eight months after the crime.

When pro-democracy students took to the streets of Tehran in recent days, the catalyst was the closing of a liberal newspaper. The broader frustration, however, was with a system that, despite a clear majority's desire for more openness, and despite President Mohammed Khatemi's reform efforts, proved capable of attacking protesting students in their dormitory – just as it had proved capable of targeting marginal figures like the Foruhars in a series of killings that pro-Khatemi forces continue to investigate. 

As the protests grew and turned violent, for instance, the killings came back to haunt security forces yet again. Students marching through the street shouted Foruhar's name and suggested his killers are still hiding behind clerical robes.

What they [the killings] did …  was trigger a debate in Iran's government that ended with appointment of a commission to investigate the killings. The group reported daily to the president, and, according to Khatemi's cabinet secretary, suspicion focused almost immediately on the government itself. 

The possibility that members of Iran's Islamic government might resort to murder to undermine Khatemi "was not far from the mind," said cabinet secretary Mohammed Ali Abtahi. 

On Jan. 6, the government disclosed what those who saw Foruhar's body had assumed: Agents of the state committed the killings. Subsequent reports indicated as many as 10 agents, officially termed "rogues," were involved. One, identified in the Iranian press as a deputy minister in the intelligence agency, committed suicide last month in prison, reportedly by drinking a hair-removing solution.

There still, however, is no guarantee that the full extent of the murder plot will be made public. It was in part demands in the press for more information that led authorities early this month to suppress publication of the left-leaning Salam newspaper, triggering the past week's Tehran University demonstrations. Friends of the Foruhars and relatives of other victims say they will not be satisfied until details are divulged in a public trial. They hope as well that a new interior minister will help Khatemi control an agency many Iranians feel is above the law – a sentiment echoed by the protesting students.

On 3 August 1999 Frankfurter Rundschau carried an interview with the chairman of the European branch of the Iranian People's Party, in which the chairman claimed that 150 members and sympathizers of the party had been arrested since the July 1999 student demonstrations. He also claimed that the party had organized "the demonstrations for freedom of the press and against the attack against the student residence" and that "the secret service is continuing to search one house after another of our members. For this reason, most have gone underground" (ibid.).

On 9 August 1999 The Iran Brief reported that:

Last month's student protests only became a nation-wide pro-democracy movement when organized political parties, in particular the nationalist forces of the outlawed Iran Nation's Party of Darioush and Parvaneh Forouhar, joined the fray. The INP, and its youth organization, have an extensive grass roots organization throughout Iran, which contributed to making the protests spread to more than 18 cities. 

Among those arrested in the broad crackdown on dissidents were Forouhar's successor as secretary general of the INP, Bahram Namazi, and the INP spokesman, Khosrow Saif. Female activist Maloos Radnia [also known as Maryam Shansi] was arrested on July 13; later, the regime televised her "confession" of having received outside assistance. 

In fact, Mrs. Radnia had been targeted by pro-regime hooligans for some time. On June 12, Mrs. Radnia was attacked at her home by three unknown assailants. The National Association of Iranian Graduate Students, to which she belonged, sent a letter to President Khatami on June 14 complaining of harassment on the campus of Tehran University by intelligence ministry goons, and specifically mentioned Mrs. Radnia's case. She filed a complaint with the Justice Ministry on June 15, after she was attacked a second time. Copies of the complaints and the letter to Khatami were made available by Iranian dissidents in the United States. 

On 3 November 1999 AFP reported that Abdollah Nuri, who was under trial on charges that included "insulting Islam," claimed that his newspaper would not cease its investigation of the Foruhars' murders, which AFP stated "authorities pinned on a 'rogue' agent in the secret police."

On 14 November 1999 Khordad carried reports from "the pro-reform" weekly newspaper Aban, on sentences to several members of the Nation Party:

"Arya" , has been sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment, four years of which are for membership in the party. "Mehran Mir-Abdolbaqi" , member of the party's youth organization, has been sentenced to nine years imprisonment, four of which are for membership in the Nation Party.

Also, Beyarani (Niyarami), a member of the aforementioned organization, has been sentenced to six months of definite and five months of suspended imprisonment.

Another party member, Bahram Namazi had been to court but had not yet been sentenced (ibid.). He remained in Towhid prison, along with party member Mokhber who was also awaiting sentence, as was Bahiye Jilani, a relative of Foruhar's who had been in solitary confinement for four months (ibid.).

The anniversary of the Foruhars' murders was marked by a ceremony at a Tehran mosque that was "attended by relatives, friends and fans of the Foruhars" and in which persons spoke about the couple (Iran News 22 Nov. 1999; IRNA 21 Nov. 1999; AP 21 Nov. 1999). AP reported that 5,000 Iranians attended and reported demands by the Forhars' daughter that "everyone behind the murder be punished, including those who ordered it." AP stated that the daughter now lives in Germany, but visited Iran in order to attend the ceremony. "Iran's intelligence minister resigned after it was announced that 10 of the ministry's agents may have been involved in Foruhar's killings. The accused agents were widely believed to be hard-line loyalists, intensifying the struggle between Iran's political conservatives and moderates" (ibid.). The Foruhars' daughter was also reported to have sued Abbas Salimi Namin, of the Tehran Times for claiming that she had "links with the Intelligence Ministry" (Iran News 12 Dec. 1999

Confessions to the Foruhars' murders, by three persons claiming to have links with "foreign enemies," were reported to be contained in a film (Tehran Times 25 Jan. 2000; AFP 26 Jan. 2000; Xinhua 23 Jan. 2000). Saeed Emami, who was Deputy Intelligence Minister for Political and Security Affairs and "believed to be the mastermind behind the political killings," committed suicide in prison in June 1999 (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 26 January 2000. "Iranian Services Disagree Whether to Show Killers' Confessions on TV." (NEXIS)

_____.3 November 1999. "Iran Reformist Defies Hardline Court, Vows to Uncover Murderers." (NEXIS)

_____. 23 November 1998. "Iran: Ex-President Blame's Tehran's 'Regime of Terror' for Murder." (FBIS-NES-98-327 23 Nov. 1998)

Al-Sharq al-Awsat [London, in Arabic]. 6 January 1999. "Iran: Defecting Iranian Security Aide Has 'List' To Liquidate." (FBIS-NES-99-006 6 Jan. 1999)

Associated Press (AP). 21 November 1999. Afshin Valinejad. "Iranians Mark Death Anniversary of Dissident Writer." (NEXIS)

_____. 17 July 1999. Afshin Valinejad. "Iranians: 1 Student Dead in Protest." (NEXIS)

The Baltimore Sun. 24 February 1999. Ann LoLordo. "Inside Iran, Moderates Battle Hard-Line Muslims; Killing of Aged Couple by Government Agents Galvanizes Dissidents." (NEXIS)

Frankfurter Rundschau [in German]. 3 August 1999. "German Daily Interviews Iran's Hezb-e Mellat-e." (FBIS-NES-1999-0803 3 Aug. 1999)

The Iran Brief. 9 August 1999. "Who Were the Leaders?" (NEXIS)

Iran News [Tehran, in English]. 12 December 1999. "Iran News Looks at Other Papers." (FBIS-NES-1999-1212 12 Dec. 1999)

_____. 22 November 1999. "Iran: 1^st Anniversary of Writers' Deaths Marked." (FBIS-NES-1999-1122 22 Nov. 1999)

IRNA [Tehran, in English]. 21 November 1999. "Iran: Memorial Service Held for Murdered Writer." (FBIS-NES-1999-1121 21 Nov. 1999)

Khordad [Tehran, in Persian]. 16 November 1999. "Students Sentenced for Tehran University Incidents." (BBC Summary 16 Nov. 1999/NEXIS)

Star Tribune [Minneapolis]. 6 December 1998. "Attacks in Iran Prompt Worry Among Dissidents." (NXEIS)

Tehran Times [Tehran, in English] 25 January 2000. "Iran: Killings Film 'No Danger to National Security'." (FBIS-NES-2000-0125 25 Jan. 2000)

United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). 28 December 1998. "Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, ubmitted by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Maurice Danby Copithorne, Pursuant to Commission Resolution 1998/80." [Accessed 26 Jan. 2000]

The Washington Post. 17 July 1999. Howard Schneider. "The Assassinations That Have Shaken Tehran; Dissidents' Deaths Are Giving Voice to Iranian Protestors." (NEXIS)

Xinhua. 23 January 2000. "Iran Blames 'Foreign Enemies' for Serial Murders." (NEXIS)