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 About
Age 66 Nationality Iran Religion Islam Civil status Married Education university diploma Occupation security forces Rank/Position General, Chief of SAVAK, Ambassador to Pakistan Institution political police, former regime Institution executive, former regime
Case Date of execution February 15, 1979 Location Refah School, Iran Mode of execution shooting Charges Collaborating with the political police SAVAK; Corruption on earth; Murder of persons and/or killing Muslims or/and freedom fighters; Torture; Unspecified anti-revolutionary offense About this Case
General Nematollah Nasiri is one of 438 victims listed in a March 13, 1980 Amnesty International report. The report lists defendants who were convicted by Revolutionary Tribunals in the period from their inception until 12 August 1979. The list of victims and charges is drawn from sources including translations of indictments, reports of trials carried out by local and foreign media and the bulletins of the official Pars News Agency reports.
The news of the execution of General Nasiri, along with three other high ranking military officials, is also announced in a communiqué of the Special Islamic Tribunal (Kayhan daily, 17 February 1979)
General Nasiri is also mentioned in the Memoirs of Ayatollah Khalkhali, the first post-revolution religious judge and head of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunals:
"I began to try the culprits soon after my nomination. The first people I tried and punished for their deeds were Nematollah Nasiri, head of SAVAK, and .... I sentenced them to death. ... All the people who were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunals were the best examples of 'corruptor on earth' and they were executed as such."
"A Corruptor on earth is a person who contributes to spreading and expanding corruption on earth. Corruption is what leads to the decline, destruction and deviation of society from its natural path. People who were executed had strived in spreading corruption and prostitution, circulating heroin, opium and licentious behavior, atheism, murder, betrayal, flattery; in sum, they had all these vile traits. These people’s problems were aggravated by the fact that they did not repent once they saw the people’s revolution."
"To sum it up, all the people that I condemned and who were executed in the early days of the establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunals and later in the Qasr prison were all corruptor on earth and based on the Quran judgment their blood was a waste."
Arrest and detention
No information is available on the defendant's arrest and detention. However, photographs published in the press show the defendant with bandages covering his head and chin.
Trial
The defendant and 24 other individuals were tried in the Alavi School. The Kayhan daily reported that these defendants were tried following an order issued by Ayatollah Khomeini on February 15th. The trial lasted 10 hours.
The report specified that the defendants, (brought in together and having each a name tag consisting of a large sheet of paper taped on their chests) were tried by a group composed of " three reputable judges, the representative of the Imam [Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali], Edalati, a member of the Jame'eye Ruhaniun-e Mobarez (Association of Combatant Clerics), and Dr. Yazdi, a member of the Revolutionary Council [A temporary revolutionary ruling body whose members were nominated by Ayatollah Khomeini]." The accused were spread out in the courtroom. The presence of prosecution witnesses is noted but there is no reference to defense witnesses.
Behind General Nasiri, A photograph in Kayhan shows a scripture [verse from the Qur'an] :
" In the Name of the Destroyer of Oppressors. The Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Iran. And for you in the Law of Talion [Qisas] there is life, O ye men of Understanding! If a man kills a Believer intentionally, his recompense is hell, to abide therein Forever. If anyone slew a person, it would be as if he slew the whole people".
Charges
The charges against General Nasiri as listed in the Special Islamic Tribunal's communiqué are: corruption on earth, massacre of people, torture, and treason.
Evidence of guilt
No information is available regarding the evidence presented against this defendant. The report of the trial mentioned the presence of witnesses testifying in support of the prosecutors but provides no information regarding their testimony.
Based on the statements of the presiding judge regarding this execution [published in Sadeq Khalkhali's memoirs, Volume I], the defendant's association with the former regime after the year 1963 was also regarded as incriminating evidence against him:
"I believed at the time, and I still believe, that all the deputies and senators, all governors, heads of SAVAK [former regime's political police] and police, who after 1963, and the Imam's boycott [referring to the period starting with Ayatollah Khomeini's arrest and conviction following the 1963 protests against the Shah's social and political reforms], held office are all sentenced to death. Directors in ministries who were instrumental in the survival of the apparatus [Shah’s regime] and who, for getting close to the Shah and his family would accept any humiliation, are all condemned.
Defense
No information is available regarding General Nasiri's defense. Kayhan's report of the trial, which does not mention any statement by the defendant or the other officials tried that day, notes that the accused were "bombarded with thousands of questions." There were no defense witnesses. However, General Nasiri denied the charges brought against him in an interview with the Kayhan correspondent, which took place moments before his execution. He referred the journalist to SAVAK's (former regime's political police) archived documents that would prove his innocence.
Judgment
According to the official communiqué, the Special Islamic Tribunal found the defendant guilty and declared him a "corruptor on earth". He was sentenced to death and confiscation of property. Based on Kayhan's report, the sentence, issued the day of the trial at 10:00 pm, was immediately confirmed by Ayatollah Khomeini and carried out. The defendant was executed at 11:45 p.m.
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Human rights violations in this caseThe legal context
Read about the courts, the judges, and the procedure. The courts
Special courts, known as the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunals, were set up after the February 1979 revolution. Their jurisdiction encompasses a wide array of offences ranging from association with or support of the former regime, promotion of foreign influence, and enmity with the revolution to possession, use or sales of narcotic drugs, murder, and profiteering. In the 1980s, a penal court, presided over by one judge, was created to handle some of the offenses punishable by death, such as theft or adultery. These tribunals’ decisions must be confirmed by a chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council.
The judges
Prosecutors and judges are not necessarily jurists. By 1981, the judiciary was purged of judges trained in law schools. They were replaced by seminary graduates and students, as well as by political appointees (an estimated 2000 by 1989). Since by law judges are only required to have a high school diploma and must be faithful to the Islamic Republic’s tenets, new recruits often have little formal training in the law and are chosen because of their political affiliation.
The procedure
The procedures of these ecclesiastical tribunals fail to meet the minimum guarantees for fair trial as established by international human rights instruments and by sha’ria (the Islamic system of law). In addition to executions ordered by revolutionary tribunals, extra-judicial executions are carried out, targeting dissidents and opposition leaders. In some cases, both inside and outside of Iran, these executions have been traced back to Iranian officials. It is, however, not known if in these particular cases trials are held in absentia.
Sources (Among others): Amnesty International, Law and Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, February 1980; Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, The Justice System of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1992; E/CN.4/1989/26 p.14; UNCHR, Resolution 1984/54 , Abolition of Torture - Iran - 1; 28 November 1984; Report on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Special Representative of the Commission, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, 28 January 1987. Amnesty International, A SHOCKED WORLD WATCHES IN DISBELIEF, VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1987-1990. Memoirs of Ayatollah Khalkhali, religious judge and former head of revolutionary tribunals (2001), and Ayatollah Montazeri, dismissed successor to Ayatollah Khomeini (2001). UNCH, E/CN.4/1994/50, Final report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran prepared by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, pursuant to Commission resolution 1993/62 of 10 March 1993 and Economic and Social Council decision 1993/273. E/CN.4/1994/50, 2 February 1994.
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 close... Detentions, interrogations, and trials: 1979-1980
Read about the conditions in which individuals were detained, tried and sentenced. Pre-trial detentions
The charges upon which the accused were arraigned were often extremely broad. Defendants generally had no access to legal counsel nor to their file and the evidence against them prior to the trial.
Trials
Witnesses might be called, or the statement of persons with relevant information read into the court’s record. Accusation witnesses could come forward the day of the trial to give evidence against the accused, but in most cases, defense witnesses were not allowed in court. There was no automatic right of a defendant to cross-examine witnesses or to know the source of the evidence against him. The defendant had an opportunity to state his side of the matter and attempt to refute what was said against him, but the final decision was solely up to the discretion of the religious judge.
Appeal processes
The judgments of the Revolutionary Courts were not subject to appeal. The convicts were generally executed within a few hours of the judgment.
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close... Based on the available information, the following human rights have been violated in this case:
The right to liberty and security of the person. The right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 9.1.
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The right not to be punished for any crime on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time it was committed.
UDHR, Article 11.2; ICCPR, Article 15, Article 6.2.
The right to due process :
b. The right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a competent and impartial tribunal in accordance with law. ICCPR, Article 14.1 and Article 14.2.
Pre-trial detention rights
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The right to know promptly and in detail the nature and cause of the charges against one.
UDHR, Article 9(2); ICCPR, Article 9.2 and Article 14.3.a
The right to counsel of one's own choosing or legal aid and the right to meet with one’s attorney in confidence ICCPR, Article 14.3.d ; Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Article 1 , Article 2, Article 5 , Article 6, Article 8.
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The right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defense case.
ICCPR, Article 14.3.b.
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The right not to be subjected to torture and to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.
Trial rights
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The right to a fair and public trial without undue delay.
ICCPR, Article 14.1, Article 14.3.c.
The right to examine, or have examined the witnesses against one and to obtain the attendance and examination of defense witnesses under the same conditions as witnesses for the prosecution. ICCPR, Article 14.3.e.
The right to have the decision rendered in public. ICCPR, Article 14.1.
The right to appeal to a court of higher jurisdiction. ICCPR, Article 14.5.
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The right to seek pardon or commutation of sentence.
ICCPR, Article 6.4.
Judgment rights
Capital punishment
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The inherent right to life, of which no one shall be arbitrarily deprived.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 6.1; Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, Article 1.1, Article 1.2.
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The right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.
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