20 Facts About Hassan Pakravan

Hassan Pakravan was a well-known diplomat and minister in the Pahlavi pre-revolutionary government of Iran.

Hassan Pakravan is not only notable for his political involvement with the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi government and SAVAK, but his relationship with Ruhollah Khomeini.

Hassan Pakravan, son of Fathollah and Amineh, was born in Tehran on 4 August 1911.

Hassan Pakravan's father held many high government posts, including governor of Khorasan province and ambassador to Italy.

Hassan Pakravan's mother, partly of European descent, was a professor at the University of Tehran.

Hassan Pakravan was awarded the prestigious French Prix Rivarol, which the French government gives to foreign authors who write directly in French.

Hassan Pakravan was related to the Habsburg rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Hassan Pakravan was then sent to Liege, Belgium where he attended high school and university.

Hassan Pakravan then studied at the artillery school in Poitiers, France, and the Ecole d'Application d'Artillerie in Fontainebleau.

Hassan Pakravan was known for being more compassionate than any of National Security and Information Department's other directors.

Hassan Pakravan returned to Iran in 1976 and was brought out of retirement in 1978 by the Shah in a last-ditch effort to curb corruption at the Royal Court.

One of the more fascinating segments of the memoirs of General Hassan Pakravan's wife is the description of her husband's weekly luncheons with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1963, when the Ayatollah was under house arrest.

General Hassan Pakravan found him to be very ambitious and secretive.

Hassan Pakravan was condemned to death and General Pakravan was upset by that.

Hassan Pakravan felt that Khomeini's execution would anger the common people of Iran.

Hassan Pakravan knew that the population of the country was not its elite.

So, they made a religious decree which was taken by General Hassan Pakravan and Seyyed Jalal Tehrani to the Shah.

Hassan Pakravan was not allowed to have access to a lawyer and the charges filed against him were vague.

Hassan Pakravan was a key player in convincing the Shah to commute the death sentence on Khomeini in 1963 and instead sending him to exile.

Hassan Pakravan argues that General Pakravan was taken from his house to an unknown destination.