Majid Jamali Fashi:
A Life Lost to the Islamic Republic’s
“Damage Control” Drive
Majid Jamali Fashi
was an Iranian athlete
and international bronze medalist
in kickboxing.
He was hanged
on the morning
of Tuesday, May 15, 2012,
after being convicted
of assassinating
Massoud Ali-Mohammadi.
The IRIB also broadcast
his own “confession”
in which he had agreed
he was guilty of the killing.
Subsequent revelations
by Maziar Ebrahimi
and others have led
to the
widespread assumption
that Jamali Fashi
was innocent.
The case against him
was similarly devoid
of hard evidence &
his “confession”
appeared coerced.
After his execution,
The IRIB’s notorious
20:30
program broadcast
what it said
was a picture
of an
Israeli passport bearing
a photo of Jamali Fashi
. But
several journalists reported
that this
was a photoshopped
image of
an Israeli passport
easily accessible
on Wikipedia –
and so badly done
that the artist
had not bothered
to change the seals
, stamps, date of issue
or expiration date.
In the
tacked-on photograph,
Jamali Fashi
was not even
facing the camera
in a manner
that would
pass muster
for an
official ID document.
Massoud Molavi Vardanjani,
another former
Iranian scientist
who had since moved
to Turkey
, later sent a message
to Maziar Ebrahimi
claiming that
the assassinations of
his colleagues
had been
co-ordinated
by Iran’s
own Intelligence Ministry.
This allegation
could not be proved
, but Vardanjani himself was
then shot dead
on November 14, 2019,
in the Sisli district
of Istanbul.
Turkish officials
have since
pointed the finger
at Iranian diplomatic staff
in Istanbul,
working on the orders
of the
intelligence services.
Ahmad Reza Jalali’s Life
Hanging in the Balance IranWire
IRIB pressed ahead
with broadcasting
Ahmad Reza Jalali’s
forced confession
on Friday night.
Jalali
was arrested
on April 24, 2016
while visiting Iran
to attend
a scientific conference,
and he was later
transfered to Evin Prison.
He found himself
chaeged with espionage
and having links
to hostile states.
By all accounts,
his only“offence”
was having refused
an earlier
solicitation
to spy on behalf of Iran
in Sweden,
in his capacity
as a
disaster medicine expert.
But in Iran,
Jalali
was then accused
of having had a role
in the
nuclear scientists’ killings
and sentenced to death
in Branch 15
of the
Revolutionary Court
, presided over
once again
by Judge Salavati,
on charges of
moharebeh
[war against God] &
“cooperation with
the Israeli government”.
The sentence has since
been upheld
twice by
the Supreme Court.
The first time
his “confessions”
were aired on TV
in 2017
Ahmad Reza Jalali
stated
in an audio file
released
from prison
that he had been
forced to
“admit” to
the crimes
on camera
After
A protracted period
in solitary confinement.
Vida Mehrannia
, his wife, told Iran wire
in November 2020
that
he had been isolated
in his cell
for three months
prior to
the confession
being taped.
“They threatened
if
he did not cooperate,
they would keep him
there until he died,
and no one would know,”
she said.
“They said they would kill
his five-year-old son.
He was taken out
of Evin Prison
in the
middle of the night,
blindfolded.
“They wrote
the script,
and said
they would
make the video
and then release him.
They said the video
had nothing
to do with his case
and they needed it
for something else.
Ahmad Reza said
that if
he said
a word wrongly,
they would shout,
insult him,
turn off the camera,
and start filming again
from the beginning.”
According
to information
received by
IranWire,
Ahmad Reza Jalali
has more recently
been moved
from Evin Prison
and is likely to now
be in
solitary confinement
in Rajaei Shahr Prison
. His mother died in Iran
from Covid-19
on Thursday, 15/07
and his family say
he was denied contact
with her for nine months
prior to her death.
Concerns about
Ahmad Reza Jalali’s health
have escalated into alarm
over the past 12 months.
The Swedish government
conferred Swedish citizenship
on him last year,
but talks o
On the case
have been sluggish
He is still being denied
the right
to contact his family
in Sweden too.
The rebroadcast of
his forced confession is
therefore another cause
for serious concern.
RFEL:
Rights Groups
Say Iran’s State TV Aired
Iranian State TV Re-Airs Jailed
“Documentary
The Spy Academy,
on the subject
of the abuse
of scientific
and academic settings
by spy agencies,
is to be broadcast on
IRIB Channel 5.”
Following
repeated scandals
involving the use
of forced confessions
on TV,
including another
IRIB documentary called
Terror Club
and the airing of
Maziar Ebrahimi’s
“confession” –
which prompted MPs
on such broadcasts
in 2019
–much of the
Iranian viewing public
no longer trusts
these kinds of
on-camera admissions
by political prisoners.
Instead,
the inclusion of Jalali’s tape
prompted a
fresh wave of concern
about the jailed scientist’s
state of health.
Why Don’t Iranians Trust
Televized Confessions?
At 7.58am on
January 12, 2010
, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi
, a professor
of particle physics
at the
University of Tehran
and a key contributor
to the
Islamic Republic’s
nuclear program
, was killed when
a booby-trapped
motorbike exploded
in his front yard
in northern Tehran.
The incident marked
the beginning
of a chain of
bizarre incidents
that concluded with
several more deaths of
nuclear scientists.
Other,
more sporadic assassinations
took place
in subsequent years,
with the most recent
high-profile killing being
that of
on the highway
near Damavand,
on November 27, 2020.
Two and a half years
after the
killing of
Ali-Mohammadi
and others
, on June 14, 2012,
Ministry of Intelligence
issued
an official statement
announcing
the identification
and arrest
of the “main perpetrators”
of the assassinations.
It referred to the
“identification of a number
of Israeli intelligence officers”
, without naming individuals
. Later,
based
on forced confessions
by some of those arrested,
the IRIB broadcast
a documentary called
Terror Club.
Maziar Ebrahimi
was one of the detainees
who featured
in the documentary
. On camera,
he said that
he had been in charge
of the team
that killed nuclear scientist
Majid Shahriari,
and that
he had also
been involved
in the
assassination of
Massoud Ali-Mohammadi
. The then-Minister
of Intelligence,
Haidar Moslehi,
also
accused the group
of collaborating
with the United States,
Britain and Israel.
After the documentary aired,
obvious discrepancies
in Ebrahimi’s “testimony
” – which had been fabricated
for him
by the Ministry
– infuriated
the IRGC intelligence officer
in charge of questioning him
and ultimately led
to the charges being dropped.
But he remained behind bars
for another 26 months
before finally being released
in 2015.
Ebrahimi later shared
of his capture
and forced confession
to BBC Persian.
Not only
was he not executed
, he said,
but the
Intelligence Ministry
apologized to him
and others jailed
in the case
he was asked
to leave Iran.
The TV confession itself,
Ebrahimi said
, had been extracted
from him
After 40 days of torture.
“During that time,
” he told the BBC, “
I endured
more than 600 blows
from cables
to my broken leg
, in addition to the
cables that struck
other parts of my body
. I was then kept in
solitary confinement
for 16 months,
without a visit
or even
a phone call to my family.
The vertebrae
in my back were bent.
I was ready to
accept any accusation
these gentlemen put to me
to evade further torture.”
His brother
Babak Ebrahimi,
who was also arrested
for allegedly collaborating
in the killings and running
an “international spy network”
for Israel,
also later spoke out.
Another defendant,
Nader Kohan Nouri,
was released in 2014
and left Iran
, later telling IranWire
of the harrowing
five months of torture
he suffered
that made him
“confess”.
All of these defendants
were sentenced to
death in the
Iranian Revolutionary Court
by Judge Abolghassem Salavati.
The group’s revelations
caused a stir in Iran.
A group of MPs
demanded answers
from the
Ministry of Intelligence
and even
tabled a motion
to see
televised forced confessions
banned outright.
Government spokesperson
Ali Rabie conceded:
“The investigators
in this case were not
anti-espionage experts,
but experts
in other fields.
Also,
these people have
been apologized to
and appeased.
” And that,
as far as the regime
was concerned
, was that.
Leafy sees 
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