Mohammad-Reza Kolahi ( fa, محمدرضا کلاهی) (1958–15 December 2015) was a member of 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) ( fa, سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران, sâzmân-e mojâhedīn-e khalq-e īrân), is an Iranian pol ...

(MEK) who, according to Iranian authorities, was suspected of planting a bomb at the headquarters of the

Islamic Republican Party The Islamic Republican Party (IRP; fa, حزب جمهوری اسلامی, Ḥezb-e Jomhūrī-e Eslāmī, also translated Islamic Republic Party) formed in 1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini establish theocracy in Iran. ...

(IRP) that killed more than 70 officials on 28 June 1981. Kolahi was assassinated on 15 December 2015. The

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

is believed to have been behind the assassination. He reportedly was a freshman student of electrical engineering who worked as an electrician in the IRP.

Hafte Tir bombing allegations

On 28 June 1981, two bombs were detonated at the IRP headquarters in Tehran, killing Chief Justice

Mohammad Beheshti Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti ( fa, سیّد محمد حسینی بهشتی; 24 October 1928 – 28 June 1981) was an Iranian jurist, philosopher, cleric and politician who was known as the second person in the political hierarchy of Iran after t ...

and some seventy Iranian officials. The Islamic Republic of Iran first blamed

SAVAK SAVAK ( fa, ساواک, abbreviation for ''Sâzemân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniat-e Kešvar'', ) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service in Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. SAVAK operated from 1957 until prime ...

and the Iraqi regime. Two days later,

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

accused the MEK. According to the

, Kolahi was suspected of planting the bombs as he left the building to "buy ice creams" ten minutes before the detonations. A few years later, a Kermanshah tribunal sentenced to death four "Iraqi agents" for the incident. Another tribunal in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

sentenced to death Mehdi Tafari for the same incident. In 1985, the head of military intelligence informed the press that the bombing had been the work of royalist army officers. Iran's security forces blamed the United States and "international mercenaries". According to

Ervand Abrahamian Ervand Abrahamian; hy, Երուանդ Աբրահամեան (born 1940) is an Iranian-American historian of the Middle East. He is Distinguished Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, Graduate Center of the City Un ...

, "whatever the truth, the Islamic Republic used the incident to wage war on the Left opposition in general and the Mojahedin in particular."

Assassination

In 2018, it was revealed that Kolahi had been living in the Netherlands as a refugee under the false identity of Ali Motamed ( fa, علی معتمد) and had been murdered in December 2015. Kolahi was married to an Afghan woman and had a 17-year-old son. He had avoided events organised by his Afghan wife’s family for fear of images of his face emerging on social media. According to ''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

'', two men suspecting of killing Kolahi were identified as 28-year-old Anouar Aoulad-Buochea and 35-year-old Moreo Menso, “Both suspects have a

criminal record A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

and come from the same Bijlmer neighborhood of Amsterdam.” Several sources accused the Iranian government of being behind the assassination.

Naoufal Fassih Naoufal Fassih, also known as Buik (Dutch for "belly"), is a Dutch criminal of Moroccan origins. He has been at the centre of a longrunning feud between two Dutch crime gangs. Criminal background He has criminal links to Spain, Ireland and Morocco. ...

was also convicted of one charge of murder and one of attempted murder in relation to the case based on evidence seized from

Ennetcom Ennetcom was a Netherlands based communications network and service provider. The company was based in the Netherlands as were most of its customers, but most of the company servers were based in Canada. Danny Manupassa, the company owner, was ar ...

. He subcontracted the murder to hitmen in the Netherlands. Emails revealed that €130,000 was offered for the murder of Motamed, though the identity of whoever offered the money has never been established.

References

1958 births 2015 deaths Entryists Fugitives Fugitives wanted by Iran Islamic Republican Party politicians Iranian emigrants to the Netherlands Iranian people murdered abroad Iranian refugees Islamic Revolution Committees personnel People murdered in the Netherlands People murdered by Dutch organized crime Mocro Maffia People sentenced to death in absentia People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran members {{iran-bio-stub