Mohammed Sadeq Givi Khalkhali (27 July 1926 – 26 November 2003) ( fa, صادق خلخالی) was an Iranian
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
cleric who is said to have "brought to his job as
Chief Justice of the revolutionary courts a relish for
summary execution
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...
" that earned him a reputation as Iran's "
hanging judge
"Hanging judge" is a colloquial phrase for a judge who has gained notoriety for handing down punishment by sentencing convicted persons to death by hanging, or otherwise imposing unusually harsh sentences. Hanging judges are officers of the court ...
".
[Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali](_blank)
''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' 28 November 2003 A farmer's son from
Iranian Azeri
Iranian Azerbaijanis (; az, ایران آذربایجانلیلاری, italics=no ), also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azerbaijani ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani lan ...
origins was born in Givi, Azerbaijani S.S.R., U.S.S.R. (now in
Azerbaijan Republic
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
). He is also reported to have born in
Kivi, Khalkhal
Kivi ( fa, كيوي, also Romanized as Kīvī; also known as Kīvī Zāvīyeh) is a village in Khvoresh Rostam-e Shomali Rural District, Khvoresh Rostam District, Khalkhal County, Ardabil Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 190 ...
, in the
Khalkhal County
Khalkhal County ( fa, شهرستان خلخال; az, شهرستان خلخالخالخال بؤلگهسی) is in Ardabil province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Khalkhal. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 92 ...
,
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 ...
(ergo his name). Khalkhali has been described as "a small, rotund man with a pointed beard, kindly smile, and a high-pitched giggle" by
''The Daily Telegraph''.
Career and activities
Khalkhali was one of Khomeini's circle of disciples as far back as 1955 and reconstructed the former secret society of Islamic assassins known as the
Fadayan-e Islam
Fadā'iyān-e Islam ( fa, فدائیان اسلام, also spelled as ''Fadayan-e Islam'' or in English "Fedayeen of Islam" or "Devotees of Islam" or literally "Self-Sacrificers of Islam") is a Shia fundamentalist group in Iran with a strong activi ...
after its suppression, but was not a well-known figure to the public prior to the
Islamic Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...
.
On 24 February 1979, Khalkhali was chosen by
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 ...
to be the ''
Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
ruler'' ( fa, حاکم شرع) or head the newly established
Revolutionary Courts, and to make Islamic rulings. In the early days of the revolution he sentenced to death "hundreds of former government officials" on charges such as "
spreading corruption on earth" and "
warring against God." Most of the condemned did not have access to a lawyer or a jury. Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979,
Reza Shah's mausoleum
The mausoleum of Reza Shah ( fa, آرامگاه رضاشاه), located in Ray south of Tehran, was the burial ground of Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944), the penultimate ''Shahanshah'' (Emperor) of Iran. It was built close to Shah-Abdol-Azim s ...
was destroyed under the direction of Khalkhali, which was sanctioned by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khalkhali ordered the
executions
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
of
Amir Abbas Hoveida
Amir-Abbas Hoveyda ( fa, امیرعباس هویدا, Amīr 'Abbās Hoveyda; 18 February 1919 – 7 April 1979) was an Iranian economist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Iran from 27 January 1965 to 7 August 1977. He was the l ...
, the Shah's longtime prime minister, and
Nematollah Nassiri
Nematollah Nassiri ( fa, نعمتالله نصیری; 4 August 1910 – 15 February 1979) was the director of SAVAK, the Iranian intelligence agency during the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and later the Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan. ...
, a former head of
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 ...
. According to one report, after sentencing Hoveida to death:
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."
Another version of the story has Khalkhali saying that while presiding over Hoveida's execution he made sure communication links between
Qasr Prison
The Museum of the Qasr Prison ( fa, موزه زندان قصر ''muze-ye zendān-e qasr'') is a historical complex in Tehran, Iran.
Formerly referred to as the Qasr Prison ( ''zendān-e qasr'', "Mansion prison"), it was one of the oldest poli ...
and the outside world were severed, "to prevent any last-minute intercession on his behalf by
Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan ( fa, مهدی بازرگان; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government. He was appointed prime minister in February 1979 by Ay ...
, the provisional prime minister."
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
Islamic Revolutionary Court (also Revolutionary Tribunal, ''Dadgahha-e Enqelab''Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', Basic Books, 1984, p.59-61) (Persian: دادگاه انقلاب اسلامی) is a special system of courts in the Islamic ...
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
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...
a tyrant, a liar, and a
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
" and "called for the destruction of the
Tomb of Cyrus
The Tomb of Cyrus ( – ''Ârâmgâh ye Kuroš Bozorg'') is the final resting place of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the ancient Achaemenid Empire. The mausoleum is located in Pasargadae, an List of archaeological sites in Iran, archaeological s ...
and remains of the two-thousand-year-old Persian palace in
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...
,
Fars Province, the
Persepolis
, native_name_lang =
, alternate_name =
, image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.
, map =
, map_type ...
." According to an interview by Elaine Sciolino of Shiraz-based Ayatollah Majdeddin Mahallati, Khalkhali came to Persepolis with "a band of thugs" and gave an angry speech demanding that "the faithful torch the silk-lined tent city and the grandstand that the Shah had built," but was driven off by stone-throwing local residents.
At the height of the
Iran hostage crisis
On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over t ...
in 1980 following the failure of the American rescue mission
Operation Eagle Claw
Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at th ...
and crash of
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s killing their crews, Khalkhali appeared on
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
"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.
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. 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.
Khalkhali later investigated and ordered the execution of many activists for federalism in
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
and
Turkmen Sahra
Turkmen Sahra ( fa, ترکمن صحرا) is a region in the northeast of Iran near the Caspian Sea, bordering Turkmenistan, the majority of whose inhabitants are ethnic Turkmen. The most important cities of Turkmen Sahra are Gonbad-e Kavus, Aq ...
,
At the height of its activity, Khalkhali's revolutionary court sentenced to death "up to 60 Kurds a day."
Following that, in August 1980 he was asked by President Banisadr to take charge of trying and sentencing drug dealers, and sentenced hundreds to death. One of the complaints of the revolution's leader and Khalkhali's superior, the
Ayatollah 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 ...
against the regime they had overthrown was that the Shah's far more limited number of executions of drug traffickers had been "inhuman."
[Bakhash, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', (1984), p. 111]
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
Islamic Republic 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. ...
Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti "working behind the scenes" to remove a source of bad publicity for the revolution, as a matter of outright corruption.
In an interview, Khalkhali personally confirmed ordering more than 100 executions, 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, where he executed his victims using machine guns. In an interview with the French newspaper ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
'' he is quoted as saying, "If my victims were to come back on earth, I would execute them again, without exceptions."
Khalkhali was elected as representative for
Qom in
Islamic Consultative Assembly
The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...
for two terms, serving for "more than a decade." In 1992, however, he was one of 39 incumbents from the Third Majles and 1000 or so candidates rejected that winter and spring by the
Council of Guardians
The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...
, which vets candidates. The reason given was a failure to show a "practical commitment to Islam and to the Islamic government," but it was thought by some to be a purge of radical critics of the conservatives in power.
Khalkhali sided with reformists after the election of President
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...
in 1997, although he was never really accepted by the movement.
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. At the time of his death, the speaker of Parliament,
Mehdi Karoubi, praised the judge's performance in the early days of the revolution.
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. She was the author of "Why We Say No to Forced Hijab" — a widely circulated 2008 essay.
Electoral history
See also
*
Islamic Revolutionary Court
Islamic Revolutionary Court (also Revolutionary Tribunal, ''Dadgahha-e Enqelab''Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', Basic Books, 1984, p.59-61) (Persian: دادگاه انقلاب اسلامی) is a special system of courts in the Islamic ...
*
List of Ayatollahs
This is a partial list of Ayatollahs, a title given to high ranked Twelver Usuli Shi'a Muslim clerics. Its ranking is higher than Hujjat al-Islam, and the next higher clerical rank is Grand Ayatollah also known as Marja'. This list contains only t ...
*
References
Further reading
V. S. Naipaul
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...
interviews Khalkhali in two of his better-known books
* ''
Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey'' (1981)
* ''
Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples'' (1998)
art II, chapter 7
External links
Qaddafi Meets an Ayatollah2 January 1992
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khalkhali, Sadegh
1926 births
2003 deaths
20th-century Iranian judges
Iranian ayatollahs
Iranian Islamists
Shia Islamists
People from Kivi, Iran
Deaths from cancer in Iran
Iranian revolutionaries
People of the Iranian Revolution
Politicide perpetrators
Members of the Assembly of Experts
Deputies of Qom
Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly
Members of the 2nd Islamic Consultative Assembly
Members of the 3rd Islamic Consultative Assembly
Association of Combatant Clerics politicians
Combatant Clergy Association politicians
Qom Seminary alumni
Burials at Fatima Masumeh Shrine