Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – May 6, 1999

I studied at home until eleven in the morning. I went to the Koushk office, where I spent the time until five o’clock attending to affairs and reading bulletins and newspapers, including a bulletin about writers and artists that had compiled examples of their anti-revolutionary works and activities, described them as the foundations of the cultural invasion, and placed the blame on the performance of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance over the previous two years.

Before noon, Mr. Karbaschi went to court and was transferred from there to Evin Prison. A large number of people and municipal officials also accompanied him and demonstrated in his support. Some others chanted slogans against him. Faezeh also said that the trial was political and that accusing him of granting reductions concerning land belonging to five municipal officials, for which he had also had the permission of the Minister of Interior and which was common practice in most organizations, did not constitute grounds for a criminal offense. Since he had committed no crime, there was no reason to request a pardon.

In the afternoon, Yaser came and gave a report on the distribution of the book Crossing the Crisis, my memoirs from 1981, and said that he wanted to prepare my 1982 memoirs for publication. Following Mohsen’s recommendation, I told him that the appendices—including interviews, Friday prayer sermons, speeches, messages, important letters, and so on—should also be published.

Early in the evening, Mr. Abdullah Nouri and Ali Hashemi came. They brought a letter from Mr. Karbaschi, written as a farewell and, in a sense, as a grievance. I was moved and wrote several sentences in response on his letter, regarding his competence and commitment, and expressing regret that society was being deprived of his services, while maintaining respect for the law.

Mr. [Abdullah] Nouri is angry with senior officials and attributes these developments to them. It is being reported that Mr. [Ataollah] Mohajerani once said at a meeting of the Executives of Construction Party that it had been mentioned in a meeting that Mr. Karbaschi was acting arrogantly, and someone had said, “He will see that there are people even more powerful than he is.”

Effat had gone to the Book Fair and was upset by the scenes she had witnessed. She said that groups of young people had gathered in different corners, with heated speeches and political questions and answers taking place, including by Engineer [Ezzatollah] Sahabi, [Mashaallah] Shamsolvaezin, and Faezeh.