Saeed Emami (; né Saeed Eslami) (14 January 1958 – 19 June 1999) was the Iranian deputy minister of intelligence under

Ali Fallahian Ali Fallahian ( , born 1949)FALLAHIAN, ALI (1949– ), in ''The A to Z of Middle Eastern Intelligence'', Ephraim Kahana and Muhammad Suwaed, pp. 85-86, 2009 is an Iranian cleric, judge and politician. He was Iran's second Minister of Intelligen ...

, and adviser to the

Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi (; born 3 December 1950) is an Iranian politician and cleric. He is currently a member of the Assembly of Experts and also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. He was previously the Minister of Intelligen ...

. He was appointed as deputy minister in security affairs and the second person of intelligence ministry when he was 32 years old. He is also considered as the designer and leader of many internal and extraterritorial intelligence operations during the 1990s, especially in the case of western countries,

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and anti-revolutionary units. He was accused of having independently organized the assassinations of dissidents (known as the " chain murders").

Biography

Emami was born in Abadeh, near Shiraz, Iran. In 1978, he moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

with the help of his uncle, Soltan Mohammad Etemad, to pursue his studies in mechanical engineering.سعید امامی، مردی که بر اساس شایعات با داروی نظافت خودکشی کرد
bbc persian Following the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, he returned to Iran and became involved in intelligence gathering. In 1984, when the

Majlis of Iran The Islamic Consultative Assembly (), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the unicameral national legislative body of Iran. The parliament currently consists of 290 representatives, an ...

(Iranian Parliament) approved the establishment of the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran, he joined the ministry and worked at the foreign directorate during

Mohammad Reyshahri Mohammad Reyshahri (), also known as Mohammad Mohammadi-Nik (29 October 1946 – 21 March 2022), was an Iranian politician, cleric, judge and religious scholar, who notably served as Chief Judge of the Revolutionary Military Tribunal (1979–1984 ...

's term. Later he was appointed deputy minister during the tenure of

. He was also the director of the ministry's security directorate.

Background

Some sources claimed that Emami was of Jewish origin, but

believes that "they just wanted to justify his arrest and torture". According to

Hamshahri ''Hamshahri'' (; ) is a major Iranian national Persian-language newspaper in Tehran (whose municipal government owns the newspaper). History and profile ''Hamshahri'' is published by the municipality of Tehran, and founded by Gholamhossein ...

, he was the first

Holocaust denier Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...

in the Islamic Republic.

Arrest and death

In 1999, after being charged with orchestrating the Chain Murders, Emami was arrested and imprisoned. According to Muhammad Sahimi:

On 20 June 1999, it was announced that Saeid Emami had died in prison the night before. It was claimed that Emami had attempted to commit suicide by drinking a depilatory compound in the bathroom on 16 June 1999. He had been taken to a hospital and had undergone treatment, but had died on 19 June. It was claimed that he died of a cardiac arrest and because he suffered from respiratory problems. His family held a memorial service for him in which 400 people participated.

Iranian dissidents are reported to believe "he was murdered in order to prevent the leak of sensitive information about MOIS operations, which would have compromised the entire leadership of the Islamic Republic." He was later alleged to have assisted in the defection of Abolghassem Farhad Mesbahi, a former Iranian intelligence official. Mesbahi stated he fled Iran in 1996 after his former colleague Emami warned him of an assassination order against him. Mesbahi was offered asylum in Germany where he was a witness in the Mykonos restaurant assassinations trial, contributing to a German court ruling blaming Iranian government officials for the attack and issuing an arrest warrant for former Iranian Intelligence Minister Fallahian. It was implied that Emami's arrest was at least in part for this action.Assassins Turquoise Palace
Iranian, July 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emami, Saeid 1958 births 1999 deaths Deputies of the Ministry of Intelligence (Iran) People from Shiraz Prisoners who died in Iranian detention Iranian people who died in prison custody Suicides by poison Suicides in Iran Iranian assassins Iranian Holocaust deniers 1999 suicides Murderers who died by suicide in prison custody Political prisoners in Iran Politicide perpetrators

Biography

Background

Arrest and death

See also

References