13 Facts About Mehdi Hashemi

Mehdi Hashemi was an Iranian Shia cleric who after the 1979 Iranian Revolution became a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

Mehdi Hashemi was defrocked by the Special Clerical Court and executed by the Islamic Republic in 1987.

Mehdi Hashemi was the brother of Hadi Mehdi Hashemi, Ayatollah Montazeri's son-in-law.

Mehdi Hashemi first became known to the Iranian public during the closing days of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1977 when SAVAK arrested him for the vigilante murder of "prostitutes, homosexuals, and drug traffickers".

Mehdi Hashemi was accused of murdering a conservative cleric who had publicly insulted cleric Khomeini, the Grand Ayatollah.

Mehdi Hashemi followed Montazeri's visions on the interpretation and implementation of the Islamic revolution during a time of contradictory and increasingly fractious understandings within the ruling elite which sought to circumscribe Montazeri's influence in Lebanon and tighten the Iranian government's grip on its Lebanese Shi'a clients.

Some sources say Mehdi Hashemi ran an organization out of Montazeri's office which sought to export the Islamic revolution to other Shi'a areas; other sources say he was in charge of the "Bureau of Assistance to the Islamic Movements in the World", which was tasked with spreading the Islamic Revolution throughout the Middle East.

Mehdi Hashemi leaked news of the dealings to the Lebanese news magazine Ash-Shiraa.

Mehdi Hashemi's prosecution was handled by the Mohammad Reyshahri, the former judge of the military tribunals who had recently been appointed minister of intelligence.

However many more months of "thorough" interrogation of Mehdi Hashemi including the application of 75 lashes for lying, and confrontation with "damaging confessions" from his 40 accomplices including his brother, produced more.

Evidence that Mehdi Hashemi was tortured to confess comes from an unsympathetic source.

Mehdi Hashemi was executed in Tehran in September 1987 before his verdict was announced.

Mehdi Hashemi is a devout Muslim, a militant revolutionary, and a great admirer of the Imam.