Shah’s P.M. shot after 'trial’

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 1

Shah’s P.M. shot after 'trial’

NZPA-Reuter Teheran The executioner who shot the former Iranian Prime Minister, Mr Amir Abbas Hoveyda, after a secret trial on Saturday night described him as “a corrupt of the Earth,” before opening fire with a sub-machine-gun, a newspaper said yesterday. The evening newspaper, “Etela’at,” in a special one-page edition, carried eight photographs of Mr Hoveyda in a room — evidently the courtroom — clearly pleading for his life. It quoted the executioner as saying: “You, Mr Amir Abbas Ho'veyda, as a corrupt of the Earth, according to the verdict of the Court, have been sentenced to death. . . fire.” . The photographs showed Mr Hoveyda, dressed in a dark shirt covered by a white wool sweater, sitting -in a white wooden chair in a small room containing about 50 people, many wearing dark glasses. The secret trial of Mr Hoveyda was similar to many since the revolution in February. Trials are held before an Islamic leader, usually take less than a day, are conducted in secret, and are not subject to appeal. The executions are carried out at once. So far nobody has been acquitted. Iran’s provisional Government had no advance knowledge of the secret trial and execution of Mr Hoveyda, said the deputy

Prime Minister (Mr Amir Entezam) yesterday. Mr Entezam said the Prime Minister (Mr Bazargan) was not Opposed to executions. The summary execution of Mr Hoveyda, the Shah’s Prime Minister for 13 years, brought a deliber-

ately subdued but angry reaction from many Iranians, who heared the news only on a brief radio bulletin. But others, remembering the deaths of thousands of anti-Shah demonstrators, said they felt such executions were necessary to cleanse Iran of the old leaders. Two generals and four other soldiers were also shot by firing squad in

Iran on Saturday, bringing the total erf the Shah’s former officials known to have been executed to 59. The revolutionary prose-cutor-general denied a report in “Etela’at” that the Shah’s half-sister, Princess Fatemeh, had been arrested. A brother of Mr Hoveyda said in London yesterday that his execution was a crime which made a mockery of the Islamic religion. Mr Fereydoun Hoveyda said: “Those who pretend to serve Islam in Iran are, in fact, making a mockery of our religion." Mr Hoveyda described his brother as “a patriot, a man of courage who, unlike many others, refused to escape and chose to remain in his country.” Another former Prime Minister, Dr Shapur Baktiar, fled in the confusion after the revolution in February and is now living in Europe. “My brother, as well as many other victims, was denied any form of human rights,” Mr Hoveyda said. “He had, and they had, no lawyer and no means of defence whatsoever. In addition, the so-called judges had decided well ri advance on the sentence.” Obituary, Page 8.