Names and Signs of the Cinema Rex Abadan Tragedy

46 years ago, around 10 PM on August 19, 1978, a few months before the revolution, a news shocked not only Abadan but all of Iran; the fire at Cinema Rex which claimed the lives of hundreds of viewers watching the film "The Stags." Some accounts suggest that more than 600 people burned and died in this tragedy, but Reza Takieh in his book "The Last Shah" recorded the number of victims as 479. Following this tragedy, deep discussions and debates arose, and many names and signs were raised in its case. This report narrates the role and fate of some of these names. Separately from the narratives about the Cinema Rex tragedy, one name has been less heard over the years; Dr. Mohammad Reza Ameli Tehrani, a member of the Pan-Iranist Party and the Resurrection Party, who was the Minister of Information and Tourism during the government of Jaafar Sharif-Emami at the time of the Cinema Rex fire in the summer of 1978. Dr. Ameli Tehrani was an anesthesiologist from Tehran University, but he gained fame due to his political activities and patriotism. He entered political activism with national inclinations from his teenage years and later wrote books and articles about "Nationalism in Iran." He was one of the founders of the Pan-Iranist Party and its most important theorist. During the Cinema Rex fire, he was the Minister of Information and Tourism and simultaneously responsible for pursuing the case of the Cinema Rex tragedy. After the arrest of one of the individuals involved in the Cinema Rex fire named "Hossein Takbali Zadeh," he stated in a press conference that he had documents proving the involvement of religious extremists loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini in the Cinema Rex fire. In contrast, Ruhollah Khomeini, who was still in exile in Najaf, Iraq at that time, blamed the government and monarchy for the incident, claiming it was aimed at discrediting the opposition. Khomeini later claimed: "Evidence suggests that the hand of the criminal oppressive apparatus is at work to misrepresent the human-Islamic movement of the nation in the world." Dariush Homayoun, a political figure from the Pahlavi era, stated years ago that Dr. Ameli Tehrani knew who the perpetrators and instigators of the Cinema Rex fire were and was aware of a personal connection named "Mohammad Kiyavash" with Najaf and Khomeini's household. However, Jaafar Sharif-Emami, the then Prime Minister, considered making this information public as detrimental to his government's "national reconciliation" plan and tried to keep the matter "silent." Alireza Noorizadeh, a journalist and political analyst, also mentioned in an interview that Dr. Ameli Tehrani was aware of Mohammad Kiyavash's role in the Cinema Rex tragedy and the reasons for the media silence on the matter. After the arrest of the primary suspect in the Cinema Rex tragedy, Dr. Ameli Tehrani, as the case investigator, invited a group of editors and journalists to the Ministry of Information and Tourism, which later became the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance after the revolution, and stated that he had documents regarding the role of an individual named Mohammad Kiyavash in Khuzestan and his connection to Najaf and Khomeini's household. But who is Mohammad Kiyavash, whom Dr. Ameli Tehrani claimed had incited several youths, including Hossein Takbali Zadeh, to set fire to Cinema Rex? Mohammad Alavi Tabar, known as Mohammad Kiyavash, was a teacher and a deeply religious person who was a critic of the monarchy in Khuzestan before the revolution and became a representative of Ahvaz and Abadan in the Islamic Consultative Assembly after the revolution. He ultimately passed away on March 10, 2020, at the age of 89 due to COVID-19. Kiyavash was the one whom Hossein Takbali Zadeh later stated in court had incited him and several other youths to set fire to the cinema; a detail that Ardshir Bayat, the Deputy of the Police Department of Abadan, confirmed a few years before his death. After the 1979 revolution, Hossein Takbali Zadeh, who, according to Dr. Ameli Tehrani's claims, had confessed to being incited by Mohammad Kiyavash, was released from Abadan Police Station and then re-arrested. Roya Boroumand, a director at the Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation for Human Rights, told Radio Farda that based on documents she possesses, Takbali Zadeh caused his own re-arrest after the 1979 revolution. According to Ms. Boroumand, he repeatedly approached Khomeini's associates to introduce himself, but they were not interested in his re-arrest and further noise until, due to public pressure and the families of the Cinema Rex fire victims, Takbali Zadeh was arrested again, and a court was held to address the case in September 1980, nearly two years after the 1979 revolution. However, among the convicted and even the accused in the Cinema Rex court, the name of Mohammad Kiyavash, whom Dr. Ameli Tehrani claimed was the main instigator of the group of revolutionary youths in Abadan to set fire to Cinema Rex, was never mentioned. Hassan Shari'atmadari, a political activist and son of the renowned Shia cleric Mohammad Kazem Shari'atmadari, stated that documents regarding this matter were in his father's possession but were taken away after the Islamic Republic's forces raided his father's house in the early years after the revolution and were never returned. Mr. Shari'atmadari stated that it became clear that Mohammad Kiyavash had incited a group of youths in Abadan to escalate the revolutionary atmosphere. Ultimately, Hossein Takbali Zadeh was executed in 1980 as the primary suspect in the Cinema Rex fire, and a few months later, Mohammad Kiyavash was elected as a representative to the Islamic Consultative Assembly. What happened to Dr. Ameli Tehrani? Alireza Noorizadeh discusses the arrest, trial, and execution of Dr. Ameli Tehrani, stating that he was arrested immediately after the revolution. Throughout his trial, Sadegh Khalkhali and other main officials of the Revolutionary Court made no mention of his investigations into Cinema Rex, and only general accusations such as being a stabilizer of the Pahlavi regime and promoting censorship were raised against him. According to Mr. Noorizadeh, everyone thought that Dr. Ameli Tehrani would ultimately receive a one-year prison sentence due to his ministerial role and responsibilities in the Pahlavi government, until suddenly, in his final defense, one of Sadegh Khalkhali's assistants referred to the Cinema Rex incident and claimed that Dr. Ameli Tehrani wanted to blame this crime on the revolutionary opponents of the Shah. Noorizadeh told Radio Farda that after that, unexpectedly, it was announced that Dr. Ameli Tehrani had been sentenced to death, and "his last words in the final meeting with his friends and relatives were: 'Do not think of me anymore, think of Iran.'" Ultimately, by the ruling of the Revolutionary Court, Dr. Mohammad Reza Ameli Tehrani was executed by firing squad at 5 AM on May 7, 1979, at the age of 51 on the charge of "corruption on earth."