The following is a list of notable people assassinated by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) (Persian: سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران, romanized: sâzmân-e mojâhedīn-e khalq-e īrân), is an Iranian dissident organization that was previously armed but has now transitioned primarily into a political advocacy group. Its headquarters are currently based in Albania. The group's ideology is rooted in "Islam with revolutionary Marxism", but after the Iranian revolution became about overthrowing the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and installing its own government. At one point the MEK was Iran's "largest and most active armed dissident group", and it is still sometimes presented by Western political backers as a major Iranian opposition group, but it is also known to be deeply unpopular today within Iran, largely due to its siding with Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War.
Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti was an Iranian jurist, philosopher, cleric and politician who was known as the second person in the political hierarchy of Iran after the Revolution. Beheshti is considered to have been the primary architect of Iran's post-revolution constitution, as well as the administrative structure of the Islamic republic. Beheshti is also known to have selected and trained several prominent politicians in the Islamic Republic, such as former presidents Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Ali Fallahian, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi. Beheshti also served as the Secretary General of the Islamic Republic Party, and was the head of the Iranian judicial system. He further served as Chairman of the Council of Islamic Revolution, and the Assembly of Experts. Beheshti earned a PhD in philosophy, and was fluent in English, German and Arabic.
The Iranian Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution, was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution also led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was superseded by the theocratic government of Ruhollah Khomeini, a religious cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.
Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolished the monarchy, serving from February 1980 until his impeachment by parliament in June 1981. Prior to his presidency, he was the minister of foreign affairs in the interim government. He had resided for many years in France where he co-founded the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Mohammad-Javad Bahonar was a Shia Iranian theologian and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Iran for less than one month in August 1981. Bahonar and other members of Mohammad-Ali Rajai's government were assassinated by Mujahideen-e Khalq.
Sayyid Assadollah Ladjevardi was an Iranian conservative politician, prosecutor and warden. He was one of the officials responsible for the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, and was assassinated by the People's Mujahedin of Iran on 23 August 1998.
Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani was an Iranian Shia cleric, writer and conservative and principlist politician who was Acting Prime Minister of Iran from 2 September until 29 October 1981. Before that, he was Minister of Interior in the cabinets of Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. He was the leader of Combatant Clergy Association and Chairman of the Assembly of Experts and also founder and president of Imam Sadiq University.
Massoud Rajavi became the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) in 1979. In 1985, he married Maryam Rajavi, who became the co-leader of the MEK. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq. He disappeared shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and it is not known whether he is still alive. This has left Maryam Rajavi as the public face of the MEK.
Numerous civilians, including men, women, children, government officials, activists, secular intellectuals and clerics have been victims of assassination, terrorism, or violence against non-combatants, over the course of modern Iranian history.
Ali Sayyad Shirazi was an Iranian regular military (Artesh) officer. He served as commander of the Ground Force during Iran–Iraq War. He was assassinated by Mojahedin-e Khalq in 1999 while serving as the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff.
On 28 June 1981, a powerful bomb went off at the headquarters of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) in Tehran, while a meeting of party leaders was in progress. Seventy-four leading officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran were killed, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who was the second most powerful figure in the Iranian Revolution. The Iranian government first blamed SAVAK and the Iraqi regime. Two days later, on 30 June, the People's Mujahedin of Iran was accused by Khomeini of being behind the attack. Several non-Iranian sources also believe the bombing was conducted by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
Following the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and his regime by revolutionaries in February 1979, Iran was in a "revolutionary crisis mode" from this time until 1982 or 1983 when forces loyal to the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, consolidated power. During this period, Iran's economy and the apparatus of government collapsed; its military and security forces were in disarray.
Premiership of Mir-Hossein Mousavi were the third and fourth government of Iran after the Iranian Revolution. At that time, Ali Khamenei was the president.
Mohammad Montazeri Persian: محمد منتظری was an Iranian cleric and military figure. He was one of the founding members and early chiefs of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was assassinated in a bombing in Tehran on 28 June 1981.
Mir Asadollah Madani Dehkharghani was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric. He was the second Imam Jumu'ah of Tabriz, the Imam Jumu'ah of Hamadan, the representative of the Supreme Leader in East Azerbaijan for less than a year, and a member of the Muslim People's Republic Party. Madani was also Hamadan Province's representative in the first term of the Assembly of Experts.
The office of Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Prime Minister of Iran, was bombed on 30 August 1981 by the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), killing Bahonar, President Mohammad Ali Rajai, and six other Iranian government officials. The briefcase bombing came two months after the Hafte Tir bombing, which killed over seventy senior Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti, then Iran's second-highest official.
On 27 June 1981, in the Abuzar Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Ali Khamenei was injured after he gave a speech for prayers, with a bomb placed on the tape recorder in front of him exploded and his arm, vocal cords and lungs were damaged.
The 2017 Tehran attacks were a series of two simultaneous terrorist attacks that occurred on 7 June 2017 that were carried out by five terrorists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against the Iranian Parliament building and the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, both in Tehran, Iran, leaving 17 civilians dead and 43 wounded. The shootings were the first terrorist attacks in Tehran in more than a decade, and the first major terror attack in the country since the 2010 Zahedan bombings.
Ruhollah Khomeini's life in exile was the period that Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini spent from 1964 to 1979 in Turkey, Iraq and France, after Mohamed Reza Shah Pahlavi had arrested him twice for dissent from his “White Revolution” announced in 1963. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran from exile on 1979.
Abdol Hossein Dastgheib. He was appointed Imam of Friday Prayer and one of the representatives of the Supreme Leader in Shiraz. He was a Mujtahidd, expert in Arabic language, theology, revealed texts, and the principles of jurisprudence. He was killed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
Soureh Mehr Publishing Company (Original Text in Persian, 2000)