Dariush Forouhar

Dariush Forouhar was the leader of the Nation of Iran Party (Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran), one of the oldest nationalist-democratic parties in Iran. A veteran of the 1953 oil nationalisation movement, he briefly served as Minister of Labour in the provisional government after the 1979 revolution. He became one of the most outspoken critics of the Islamic Republic, openly calling for free elections and the rule of law from his Tehran home, which served as an informal political salon. On the night of 22 November 1998, agents of the Ministry of Intelligence entered his home and stabbed him 26 times. His wife Parvaneh Forouhar was stabbed 25 times the same night. Their murders, along with the killings of Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh weeks later, became the catalyst for the public exposure of the chain murders. The home had been under 24-hour MOIS surveillance. Lawyer Shirin Ebadi represented the Forouhar family in the subsequent proceedings. Forouhar's killers were sentenced to death but the sentences were commuted at the family's request.