Former Iranian Intelligence Minister: The Assassins of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Were Always Half an Hour Ahead

Mahmoud Alavi, the former Minister of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, stated that the assassins of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the 'father of the nuclear program' and then Deputy Minister of Defense, were always 'half an hour' ahead of Iranian intelligence agencies and 'all escaped.' Fakhrizadeh, whom the Israeli Prime Minister had urged to 'remember this name,' was killed on December 7, 2019, in northern Tehran by a heavy automatic weapon that was activated remotely. On Tuesday, December 5, during the unveiling of the book series 'Oral History of the Lives of Nuclear Martyrs' at the 'Islamic Revolution Document Center' in Tehran, Alavi said: 'We identified all the agents involved in that assassination, but since we were facing a 'cunning enemy,' they left the scene half an hour before we could locate them.' He mentioned: 'We identified individuals in western Tehran. We headed towards them. They left the house half an hour before we arrived. Then we found their trace in Arak, and again they left the scene. They then went to Hamadan, from Hamadan to Sanandaj, and then to Saqqez. But since there were no cameras in Saqqez, it was not possible to identify them, and then they left the country.' The New York Times published 'new details' about the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. The former minister also spoke about the abduction of Iran's nuclear documents in February 2018, which Mossad took from Shourabad in southern Tehran, stating: 'In that incident, we also identified the agents. However, we ultimately could not reach them.' Mahmoud Alavi served as Iran's Minister of Intelligence during the eight years of Hassan Rouhani's presidency, during which the theft of nuclear documents and the assassination of Fakhrizadeh occurred. Alavi is currently the deputy of Masoud Pezeshkian in ethnic affairs. He also acknowledged that Iran's intelligence apparatus, after 15 years of operations attributed to Israel targeting several active figures in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, 'has still not been able to trace the methods of assassination nor identify the individuals involved.' Such statements have not been expressed with this clarity before and are unprecedented in terms of the Islamic Republic's lack of intelligence oversight on the most significant anti-security events that have occurred. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi on January 11, 2010, Majid Shahriari on November 29, 2010, Dariush Rezaei-Nejad on July 23, 2011, and Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan on January 10, 2012, were all assassinated during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency and Haydar Moslehi's tenure as Minister of Intelligence. Rezaei-Nejad was shot, and three others were killed in bombings that involved attaching magnetic bombs to their vehicles. Fereydoun Abbasi, a physics professor and collaborator in Iran's nuclear program who himself survived a similar assassination attempt on November 29, 2010, revealed this week that Iranian intelligence forces did not show sufficient seriousness in protecting him and others. Abbasi, who later became the head of the Atomic Energy Organization, said that in the summer of 2010, he and Shahriari were told to change their cars, that they would be given weapons, and to place cameras in front of their houses. He said: 'We did all this, but this is not how to defend... They gave us a few pamphlets about security issues, and that was the end of it.' Despite Mahmoud Alavi's statements regarding the escape of all the assassins of Fakhrizadeh, Iran's judiciary announced on November 7 of this year that four suspects of espionage for Israel in this case have been sentenced to death. This statement indicated that three of the four suspects 'played a role in transferring assassination equipment' into the country and transporting it to the assassination site. The judiciary of West Azerbaijan Province stated that in two separate cases, these four individuals were sentenced to death for 'collaborating with Mossad.' The names of these individuals have not been disclosed. Some unofficial reports indicate that the suspects are Kurdish porters who made a living by transporting goods between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Iran. It is unclear what impact Mahmoud Alavi's statements will have on the fate of these convicts. The former intelligence minister's remarks about the incomplete identification of the details surrounding the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi and the lack of awareness of the perpetrators of this assassination come at a time when the judiciary of the Islamic Republic executed Majid Jamali Fashi, a martial arts athlete, in late May 2012, for the murder of this nuclear physics professor based on a ruling issued by Judge Salavati. Jamali Fashi, a bronze medalist in world kickboxing, apparently stated in his 'televised confession' that he had 'collaborated with Mossad and trained in Israel' to kill Ali-Mohammadi, but the numerous contradictions in those statements raised significant doubts about the 'confessions' being obtained under torture. The Islamic Republic's television presented in those 'confessions' an image of an Israeli passport with a photo of Jamali Fashi to claim that Israel had provided him with a passport for necessary training, but the Photoshop work by careless individuals who did not bother to make some changes in the stamps resulted in a crooked and not directly looking photo holder in the passport, age and issue date, and the gender of the holder's name all being incorrect and forged. Maziar Ebrahimi, another accused who was forced to make similar confessions regarding the killing of Shahriari, later recounted from prisoners who had been in Ward 209 of Evin Prison with him and had narrated events related to Jamali Fashi, that when Jamali Fashi was taken for execution, he shouted: 'You promised that if I cooperated with you, you would appreciate me when you arrested the main killer, but the agents told him, 'The Hajji's opinion has changed.' The Islamic Republic of Iran's television, with a long history of broadcasting 'confessions,' introduced Maziar Ebrahimi as the 'head of the assassination team of Majid Shahriari' in a documentary titled 'The Assassination Club' aired in 2012. Maziar Ebrahimi, a resident of Tehran originally from Sanandaj, had a trading company in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, working in film and cinema and television equipment, and had commercial cooperation with the Islamic Republic's broadcasting organization in these fields. About two years after the assassination of Majid Shahriari, he stated in front of the television camera: 'I played a role in the assassination of Ali-Mohammadi and also received training in Israel for the assassination of Shahriari.' Seven years later, Iranian government intelligence agencies admitted that Ebrahimi and dozens of other detainees in that case were innocent.