Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - June 24, 2000 - Sheikh Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi's Account of His Confrontation with Seyyed Mostafa Kazemi (Mousavi), Deputy Head of Security at the Ministry of Intelligence, and Accused of Masterminding the Chain Murders

Sheikh Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi's Account of His Confrontation with Seyyed Mostafa Kazemi (Mousavi), Deputy Head of Security at the Ministry of Intelligence, and Accused of Masterminding the Chain Murders

Statements by Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, regarding media criticism of him, and his account to Hashemi that it was initially decided to suspend the *Bayan* newspaper, managed by Seyyed Ali Akbar Mohtashami. However, due to the intervention of Sheikh Mehdi Karroubi and another individual (whose name has been censored), the decision was reversed.

This account, however, is not the full truth, as the judiciary could not have intervened in this case because Seyyed Ali Akbar Mohtashami is a cleric. The following day, the Special Court for the Clergy, under the supervision of Sheikh Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, issued an order to suspend the *Bayan* newspaper, and it was shut down.

Sheikh Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi’s account of his confrontation with Seyyed Mostafa Kazemi (Mousavi), the deputy head of security at the Ministry of Intelligence, and accused of being the mastermind behind the Chain Murders.

Although Dorri Najafabadi faced separate charges in the Tehran military court from the other accused individuals, despite the accusations and confessions against him, he was issued a non-prosecution order and later secured a high position in the judiciary. It was never explained why, if his case was to be handled separately, it was not dealt with in accordance with the common procedure of the Special Court for the Clergy.

Mahmoud Hashemi sought Hashemi’s assistance to keep his father-in-law in his position as the prayer leader of his mosque.

A report by Seyyed Mohammad Mirmohammadi, the then-deputy of the office of the Supreme Leader and representative of Qom in the Sixth Parliament, about the parliamentary majority’s electoral efforts to reject Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel’s credentials, which, after some debate, were ultimately approved in Parliament.

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The [Expediency Discernment Council] held a meeting. The topic of consolidating judicial matters under the judiciary was discussed extensively. The presence of different forms of adjudication within the Governmental Punishments Organization, municipalities, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Economic and Financial Affairs, the Medical Council, and others has complicated the matter. Assigning all of these to the judiciary would create many challenges, and delegation is also problematic. [The discussion] was postponed to the next meeting. After the session, Mr. [Seyyed Mahmoud] Hashemi Shahroudi [head of the judiciary] expressed his displeasure at the attacks from Parliament and leftist newspapers against him and the judiciary. He mentioned that it had been decided to shut down the *Bayan* newspaper, [under the management of Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Mohtashami], but after the intervention of Mr. [Mehdi] Karroubi [the Speaker of Parliament], the decision was reversed.

At noon, Mr. [Abbas Vaez] Tabasi, [Ahmad] Jannati, [Mohammad] Yazdi, [Ghorbanali] Dorri [Najafabadi], Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, and Mohammad Ali Movahedi-Kermani were my guests. Mr. Tabasi said that Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami [President] had arranged a private meeting with religious leaders in Mashhad at the house of Mr. [Ali] Falsafi, but only Mr. [Seyyed Hassan] Morteza Shahrudi attended. In that meeting, Mr. Falsafi raised three objections to Mr. Khatami: 1) Why does the government support the Sunni community? 2) Why does he make ambiguous statements and not clearly outline his positions? 3) Why is Western culture being strengthened while the clergy is being weakened?

The violation of the Leader’s directive regarding the reform of the press law by Parliament was discussed. In the afternoon, Mr. Tabasi called to say that the Guardian Council is likely to reject Parliament's resolution. Mr. [Ghorbanali] Dorri [Najafabadi, former Minister of Intelligence] reported that a meeting had been held to confront him with Mr. Mousavi [Seyyed Mostafa Kazemi], the leader of those accused of the Chain Murders. Mousavi claimed that Mr. Dorri had given the order for the killings, which was a lie, and Mr. Dorri denied it. He was upset with the judiciary.

My brother Mahmoud came and said they want to remove Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad Reza] Esfahani [his father-in-law] from the position of prayer leader at the mosque. Although he is paralyzed, he still needs to be present at the mosque.

In the afternoon, Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Mirmohammadi [representative of Qom] came, discussed the situation in Parliament, explained the approval of the urgent press reform proposal, and expressed his dissatisfaction. He also mentioned that it was highly likely that Mr. [Gholam Ali] Haddad-Adel's [Tehran representative] credentials would be rejected. He sought advice on how to proceed in Parliament.

Mr. [Mohammad Hadi] Nejad-Hosseinian [Iran's permanent representative to the UN] came and said that the Americans were inclined to improve relations with Iran, and it would be good to resolve the issues during this opportunity. He brought the statement by [Kofi Annan], the UN Secretary-General, regarding the third millennium and said that if we don’t want to move towards improving relations, we should prevent the visits of reporters and officials because they are being exploited. He mentioned that a woman who claimed to have knowledge of Iran’s assets in the U.S. had said in an interview that Iran’s claim against the U.S. was about 15 billion dollars. We have tried to contact her, but she hasn’t responded.