Responding to the Iranian official announcement of the assassination of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last Friday near Tehran, many anti-government Iranians, most of whom live in exile, have taken to the internet to remind Iranian officials of other, less talked about assassinations orchestrated by the Iranian regime.
2-Assassination of dissidents abroad was very gruesome. In 1980, the Islamic Republic assassinated Iran's pre-revolutionary spokesman for Iranian Embassy in DC, Ali Akbar Tabatabai.
— Masih Alinejad ?️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 30, 2020
In 1989, they assassinated Qassemlou, a left-wing Kurdish dissident living in Austria. pic.twitter.com/DqsjIESFSk
Even though the attack that targeted the general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who had also served as a senior official in the nuclear program of Iran hasn't been claimed by anyone yet, many Iranians who are known for their anti-government stances decided to use the opportunity to remind the world of many Iranian critics and dissidents who were killed by government operatives across the world, just as brutally as the assassination of Fakhrizadeh.
On her Twitter account, the prominent Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad posted a long thread with names and stories of academics and politicians who were targeted while away from Iran, merely for their political views that didn't go in line with those of the Iranian government.
At least 120 assassinations in 20+ countries around to globe. Oh ... and a dozen embassy attacks!
— saman arbabi (@SamanArbabi) November 30, 2020
Get to know Islamic Republic of Iran in @AlinejadMasih thread.
⬇️Tip of the iceberg⬇️ https://t.co/jcfyTnX0Bx
Those that claim this assassination was state sponsored terrorism should take a look at Iran:
a state that shoots protesters,
flogs women for not wearing a veil,
hangs dissidents & homosexuals &
threatens the destruction of a country.
Iran is ruled by state sponsors of terrorism.— JAY P (@Jaypop1201) November 29, 2020
In her thread, Alinejad remembers former diplomat Ali Akbar Tabatabai who was killed in the US in 1980, the Kurdish leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou assassinated in Vienna in 1989, the Iranian politician Abdorrahman Boroumand who was stabbed to death outside his Paris apartment in 1991, the former minister of culture Reza Mazlouman who was killed in 1996 in the French capital, in addition to the former Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar who was also targeted in Paris in 1991.
She also highlighted names of artists who were killed after speaking out against the Iranian governement post the 1979 regime, such as the singer Fereydoun Farrokhzad who was killed in Germany in 1992.
8-This is not an exhaustive list of assassinations of dissidents by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since it came to power, the regime has striven to silence criticism abroad brutally. Worse, assassins are celebrated as heroes by the regime officials
— Masih Alinejad ?️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 30, 2020
Let’s just remember the victims of the Ukrainian Airliner flight PS752 which was shot down by #Iran’s #IRGC “intentionally” using two missiles and to date no justice has been served for their families! #Fakhrizadeh was also a top commander of IRGC. pic.twitter.com/a2G7fWKXqP
— Rich Kids of Tehran (@RKOTOfficial) November 28, 2020
Over the last four decades, Iran has been facing intense international criticism over its human rights violation, especially in persecuting and targeting political rivals and critics whether ones living in Iran or abroad.
Last year, Iran had reportedly arrested and killed hundreds of protestors who took to the streets to voice out their opposition to government economic measures tightened due to US sanctions.
