Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Sadeq Okhovat

About

Age: 24
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Non-Believer
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: July 22, 1981
Location of Killing: Evin Prison, Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Unspecified counter-revolutionary offense

About this Case

Information about Mr. Sadeq Okhovat has been drawn from an interview with a relative. Some information was sent to Omid by a relative. News of this execution and those of 14 other individuals were announced by the Public Relations Section of the Prosecutor’s office and published in the Kayhan newspaper on July 22, 1981. Mr. Okhovat is also one of the 559 individuals whose name appears on the list of “Martyrs of the Peykar Organization for the Liberation of the Working Class” published on the website of Peykar Andeesheh. Additionally, this execution was also announced in the addendum of the Mojahed magazine, No. 261, published by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization on September 6, 1985. The list includes 12,028 individuals, affiliated with various opposition groups, who were executed or killed during clashes with the Islamic Republic security forces from June 1981 to the publication date of the magazine.

Mr. Okhovat, 24, was engaged. He was quiet and shy. A smile on the lips was one of his characteristics. He was a laborer and a sympathizer of the Peykar Organization. He was a resident of his birth-place, Esfahan, but a short time prior to his arrest, the Organization asked him to relocate to Tehran, in order to be active in the publication section of the Organization. He and a few others published leaflets and other pamphlets in a house in Tehran.

The Peykar Organization for the Liberation of the Working Class was founded by a number of dissident members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization who had converted to Marxism-Leninism. Peykar was also joined by a number of political organizations, known as Khat-e Se (Third Line). The founding tenets of Peykar included the rejection of guerrilla struggle and a strong stand against the pro-Soviet policies of the Iranian Tudeh Party. Peykar viewed the Soviet Union as a "Social imperialist" state, believed that China had deviated from the Marxist-Leninist principles, and radically opposed all factions of the Islamic regime of Iran. The brutal repression of dissidents by the Iranian government and splits within Peykar in 1981 and 1982 effectively dismantled the Organization and scattered its supporters. By the mid-1980s, Peykar was no longer in existence.

Arrest and detention  

Mr. Okhovat was arrested in a house in Tehran where the publications of the Peykar Organization were produced. He was sent to Evin Prison and interrogated at the Prosecutor’s Office there. The details of his arrest and detention are not known. He was detained for only 9 days, during which he was kept incommunicado.

Trial

No information is available concerning Mr. Okhovat’s trial.  

Charges

The Public Prosecutor’s Office did not release the charges brought against Mr. Sadeq Okhovat to the media.

Evidence of guilt

The report of this execution does not contain information regarding the evidence provided against Mr. Okhovat.  

Defense

No information is available on Mr. Okhovat’s defense.  

Judgment

In accordance with the verdict of the Central Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal, Mr. Sadeq Okhovat, along with 14 others, was executed by a firing squad in the Evin prison in Tehran on July 22, 1981. The executed bodies were transferred to the coroner’s office. Mr. Okhovat is buried in Khavaran cemetery.  

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