The Story of Bakhtiar's Murder According to an Iranian Descent Police Officer

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the murder of Shapur Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister of the Iranian monarchy, and Soroush Katibeh, his secretary; Hamid Fatehmi has interviewed a high-ranking Iranian descent police officer from France who was responsible for investigating this crime. For professional reasons, we refer to the police officer in the Bakhtiar murder case as Mr. Shahab. Shahab: It was Wednesday, August 8. Around 12:15 PM, Dr. Bakhtiar's son, who was also a police officer in France and responsible for his father's security, came home with the corpse of Soroush Katibeh, who was Dr. Bakhtiar's secretary, and they encountered Dr. Bakhtiar's body in the living room. Immediately, they called. I personally arrived there around 1:45 PM. When we entered Dr. Bakhtiar's yard, there were a few steps to go up, and then we entered a small hallway. Turning left, there was another small hallway, and on the right was the kitchen. At the end of this small hallway was a hall that opened to the yard. As we arrived, the first body we saw was that of Soroush Katibeh, who had fallen on his chest and had several stab wounds from behind. When I moved closer, I saw a sofa in front of the window of this hall that faced the yard, and Dr. Bakhtiar's body was on this sofa. When I looked, I saw that... of course, my colleagues had arrived earlier and told me that I arrived around 1:45 PM... 10 minutes to 2... I saw that his throat was cut and his wrist veins were slashed. In front of this sofa, a piece of a bread knife was lying on the sofa. Later, during the interrogation, we asked Vakeeli Rad, and he himself said that the first knife I brought from the kitchen was given to Mohammad Azadi, a bread knife that he wanted to use to cut his throat, but this knife broke. Then he told me to go get a bigger knife, and I went and brought another knife from the kitchen. When the investigations began... You know that when a murder occurs, the first thing we look for and seek information and evidence is the victim's house. Because I had seen Dr. Bakhtiar several times before, I knew that he always wore a beautiful Rolex watch. Even two or three weeks before, when we had seen him, he was talking and said that he always had this watch. I jokingly said that its price is this much and its brand is this, and he said yes, yes. When we were searching for evidence in the upstairs room on the day of the murder, we found the box and invoice for this watch. But when I returned downstairs, I saw that this watch was not on Dr. Bakhtiar's wrist. I remembered that two or three weeks ago, he had told me that he always had this watch. Regarding Dr. Bakhtiar's watch, it is very important for us that in the first interrogation, the person who is arrested shows signs of anxiety and distress, and in these initial interrogations, the majority of their statements reveal the truth. Vakeeli Rad, who had come in laughing, even cried at the end of the interrogation. This was because of the stress of the three weeks he had been comfortable after being arrested. When we asked him why he took the watch, he said I didn't take it. Azadi took it. When we were leaving, we were told when you finish your work, take this watch and bring it back. When we conducted further investigations, we realized that the last people who visited Dr. Bakhtiar on Monday at 3 PM were Fereydoun Bouyrahmadi and two others, one of whom was Vakeeli Rad and the other was Mohammad Azadi. Immediately, for security reasons, the photos of these three individuals were broadcast on television and in the press. We were looking for them because they were the last people who had seen Dr. Bakhtiar alive. Later, as investigations continued, we managed to arrest Vakeeli Rad three weeks and a couple of days later. On the day of the interrogation... Vakeeli Rad was arrested around Lake Geneva, and our colleagues who brought him to the interrogation room were the investigator, their secretary, the prosecutor, and I and a few other colleagues. Our other colleagues who had gone to bring him from Geneva, naturally, for safety reasons, so that no one could attack him, had put a helmet on his head and he was wearing a bulletproof vest. His hands were also handcuffed from behind. When he was brought into the investigator's room, the investigator said to take off the helmet and also remove the handcuffs; the helmet was on his head, and when they took it off and another colleague was unfastening the handcuffs, he looked at everyone and said something in Persian and laughed. The investigator asked me what he was saying. I said it was nothing important. The investigator said please translate it word for word. I said he is saying, 'Oh mother of mistakes, how hot it is here.' Then when he sat down and started explaining how this incident happened. Mr. Shahab, excuse me, before we get to Vakeeli Rad's statements, which we will return to and continue, please tell us what title Mohammad Azadi and Ali Vakeeli Rad, along with Bouyrahmadi, had when they went to see Bakhtiar and why Bakhtiar accepted them at all? Fereydoun Bouyrahmadi was one of the few people who could come and see Dr. Bakhtiar whenever he wanted. A few years earlier, he had come to France and sought asylum and had become Dr. Bakhtiar's right-hand man. Bouyrahmadi told Dr. Bakhtiar that two people from Iran are coming, supporters of yours, and they want to see you and talk to you. They want to ask for permission because they intend to blow up the oil refinery in Shiraz. Since they had come from Iran, they did not want anyone to see them. Dr. Bakhtiar had complete trust in Fereydoun Bouyrahmadi and said very well. That day he told everyone to leave, and even told his son that he did not want to see anyone and did not want anyone to come, and he cut off the phone. This often happened when he wanted to see people; he would send everyone out, and it was just him, and he would cut off the phone and have his meetings. This was not the first time such an event had occurred. That day, Monday at 3 PM, Bouyrahmadi was supposed to come with Vakeeli Rad and Mohammad Azadi. Mr. Shahab, you said that in the interrogations, Vakeeli Rad explained how the crime occurred. How did this incident happen according to what he described? Soroush Katibeh was not supposed to be there that day. When they arrived about 20 meters from the house, they suddenly saw Soroush Katibeh coming. Soroush Katibeh saw the three of them. Bouyrahmadi asked what are you doing here? He said I came to pick up a book I forgot. Bouyrahmadi said now that you are here, come in with us. They entered, and Bouyrahmadi and Soroush Katibeh sat in the kitchen. As I said, when we went up the stairs, there was a small hallway, and then we turned left into another small hallway where the kitchen was on the right, which led to the hall. Bouyrahmadi and Soroush Katibeh sat in the kitchen. Mohammad Azadi and Vakeeli Rad went into the hall to see Dr. Bakhtiar, and Mohammad Azadi, who was at least 1.85 meters tall and weighed 120 kilos, laid out a map on the table, a map of Iran, and Mohammad Azadi said, 'Mr. Dr. Bakhtiar, the oil refinery we want to hit is here.' Dr. Bakhtiar put on his glasses and leaned over the table to look at the map when Mohammad Azadi grabbed his throat and strangled him with his hands. Later, in his own interrogation, Vakeeli Rad said that while he was choking him, he told me to go get a knife. I was panicking and went into the kitchen. Suddenly, Soroush Katibeh saw that I was panicking and said what happened, Mr. Doctor? He wanted to come from the kitchen into the hall, and from behind, Fereydoun Bouyrahmadi covered his mouth and stabbed him. Vakeeli Rad also picked up a knife and took it, but it was a bread knife. When Mohammad Azadi tried to cut his throat, the knife broke, and he said go get another knife. Then he went and brought another knife. This means he did not know the difference between a bread knife and a regular knife. When they finished their work, they cleaned themselves up and went outside, standing in a corner of the yard, and Fereydoun Bouyrahmadi went to the two police officers who were there because when you entered, there was an office where we gave our names and signed... he went and filled out the office and wrote down what time they left and took the passports and came out. Anyone who came also had a photocopy taken of their identification card or passport. Then when leaving, they returned the passports. Mr. Shahab, did the police officers who were at Bakhtiar's house notice the bloodied clothes of these individuals when they went to get their passports? No. Because they had cleaned their clothes, and then the three of them came together into the yard, and suppose these two stood about a meter from the table where the police officer was standing. Because Vakeeli Rad said we stood next to each other, and Bouyrahmadi went and talked and signed, and then took our passports and we came out. All three came into the yard together... because they did not know French or any foreign language... they came out of the house and got into Bouyrahmadi's car. A little later, after the investigations, there was a cat-and-mouse game because we had broadcast their photos and were looking for them. A few days later... around Dr. Bakhtiar's house, there is a very large forest where prostitutes are at night. One of the prostitutes called the criminal police and said I have this news, and I work there at night. A few days ago, I found two clean suits in the trash, but there were small drops of blood on them. I took them, washed them, and cleaned them. Now that you are talking, I thought maybe it was related to the murder. One of our colleagues went and took these suits and sent them to the police laboratory, and despite being washed, the drops remained. They found that the drops of blood belonged to Shapur Bakhtiar and Soroush Katibeh. In his pocket, he had written 'this material is Iran.' Later, when Vakeeli Rad himself said in his first interrogation that when we came out of the house, passing through a forest, Bouyrahmadi parked the car and said take off your clothes. We took off our clothes, and there was another set of clothes in his car trunk; we threw them in the trash and put on new clothes. He took us to the train station. He told us that you will buy two tickets and go to the city of Annecy, a city about 30-40 kilometers from the Swiss border. The plan was for them to go to Annecy and from there cross over to Geneva, and according to Vakeeli Rad himself in his first interrogation, they were supposed to be in front of Iran Air. Since they did not know a foreign language, it was supposed to be around five-thirty or six. They mispronounced it and instead of saying they wanted tickets for the city of Annecy, they bought two tickets for the city of Nancy. The city of Nancy is in the northeast near the German border. While Annecy is in the center east. Vakeeli Rad himself says it took four or five hours by train, and when we arrived, we saw it said Nancy. It was completely different from what Bouyrahmadi had said. Again, they bought tickets and returned to Paris. They traveled about five hundred to six hundred kilometers and returned five hundred to six hundred kilometers. Well, this caused them to fall behind by about ten hours in terms of time. He said we called Turkey to say we are coming, we just took the wrong train. Those who were in Turkey and were related to them, no one talked about Shapur Bakhtiar's murder. The radio and television did not report anything. They tried to contact their agents in Paris to ask if there was any news about Uncle (the code name for Dr. Bakhtiar). They called everyone on Monday night and said yes, Uncle is fine. There is no issue. They returned to Paris again, which took about eight to ten hours. They bought tickets again, this time to the city of Annecy. From there, they had two original passports with Turkish names but the visas they had were fake. When they wanted to cross over to Switzerland, Swiss border officials saw that their visas were fake. They thought at that time many migrant workers were trying to go from France to Switzerland to work because at that time the minimum wage for workers was three times the minimum wage for workers in France... they thought these were migrant workers trying to go to Switzerland with fake visas. They were returned to the French post again. This was Tuesday, close to noon. They returned again. That is, the day after the murder?