Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi

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Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi (1981)

Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi ( Persian محمدرضا کلاهی; * around 1958/1959 in Iran; died on December 15, 2015 in Almere , Netherlands) was the alleged assassin in the bomb attack on the headquarters of the Islamic Republican Party on June 28, 1981.

Life

Bomb attack in Tehran in 1981

Little is known to the public about Samadi's biography. On June 28, 1981, in the early years of the Islamic Republic of Iran , which was founded in 1979, a bomb explosion occurred at the headquarters of the ruling Islamic Republican Party in Tehran. More than 70 people were killed, including numerous high party officials, including 25 members of parliament and four cabinet ministers. The dead included Mohammad Beheschti , the chairman of the Islamic Revolutionary Council and chief judge of Iran, Prime Minister Mohammad Jawad Bahonar and President Mohammad Ali Raja'i . The official investigation accused the People's Mujahideen of having carried out the attack (which they denied) and named student Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, who was employed as a sound engineer in the building, as the bomber. He was sentenced to death in absentia in a subsequent trial.

In the following years, Kolahi Samadi was one of the most wanted people in Iran. It was widely believed that he had fled the country. There were only speculations and unproven claims about his whereabouts. In 2014, the Iranian press agency IRNA published a report according to which Kolahi Samadi and Masud Kashmiri, who was also wanted , had been seen in Cologne and Hamburg in Germany.

Assassination of Ali Motamed

On December 15, 2015, Ali Motamed, who lived there, was shot dead by two strangers in the Dutch city of Almere ( Flevoland province ) . Motamed lived there with his Dutch wife, with whom he had a teenage son. He was employed as an electrician.

Shortly after the murder, there were suspicions that it was contract killing. Recordings from a video surveillance camera showed that a dark blue BMW with two people dressed in black had driven by at least three times at the time Motamed usually left his house for work. The first time Motamed left his house later than usual, the second time the neighbor left his house at the same time, which may have prevented the perpetrators from carrying out their plan, and the third time there was an assassination attempt. The BMW was later found burned out nearby. The wife told police that her husband had clarified his true identity as Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi in 2000 and suggested that the murder was commissioned by Iranian government agencies. The Dutch police arrested two suspects from the Amsterdam district of Biijlmer . Assumptions that Iranian authorities were involved in the murder have not yet been confirmed. The identity of the murdered person with the wanted Kolahi Samadi has not yet been confirmed or denied by official Dutch or Iranian authorities. The Dutch police offered a reward of € 10,000 for relevant information that could help to solve the case.

On January 8, 2019, the Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok stated that there was “serious evidence” that Iranian officials were involved in the murder and another murder in Amsterdam in 2017 of the exiled Iranian Ahmad Molla Nissi . Blok also protested against such “hostile acts” that violated the sovereignty of the Netherlands. In April 2019, the two murder suspects were sentenced to 20 and 25 years in prison, respectively. During the trial, they testified that they had received € 13,000 from an unknown person for killing Motamed, who was unknown to them.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mohsen M Milani: The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy To Islamic Republic . 2nd Edition. Routledge, New York City 2018, ISBN 978-0-8133-8476-4 , Chapter 9: Iran's First Encounter with the Presidency and the Drive Toward Radicalism: The Fundamentalists and the Mojahedin; An Eye for an Eye and More.
  2. ↑ 33 HIGH IRANIAN OFFICIALS DIE IN BOMBIMG AT PARTY MEETING; CHIEF JUDGE IS AMONG VICTIMS. The New York Times, June 29, 1981, accessed June 19, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Iran: Enemies of the Clergy. Time Magazine, July 20, 1981, accessed June 19, 2018 .
  4. ^ Bombers seen in Germany. The Iran Times, January 3, 2014, accessed June 19, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Another Twist In Mysterious Murder Of 1981 Tehran Bombing Suspect. Radio Farda, May 30, 2018, accessed June 19, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Anna: Does Iran hold key to Dutch murder mystery? BBC News, June 19, 2018, accessed June 19, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Daniel Boffey: Iran behind two assassinations in Netherlands - minister. The Guardian, January 8, 2019, accessed October 19, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Netherlands Continues Trials Linked To Killing Of An Iranian Exile. Radio Farda , April 14, 2019, accessed October 19, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Kolahi Samadi, Mohammad Reza
ALTERNATIVE NAMES محمدرضا کلاهی (Persian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian assassin
DATE OF BIRTH around 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Iran
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 2015
Place of death Almere , Netherlands