Reducing the death sentence / a thoughtful narration by Morteza Bani Fazl

On one of these days, I was returning home after teaching. I came to the alley, I saw Mr. Dr. Bahadri walking in our alley, as if he was looking for someone.

The Bahadris are a famous family in Tabriz and like other families, they had positive and negative people, good and bad. One of them was Senator Bahadri, who was an affiliate of the Shah's regime. One of them was Haj Mohammad Sardar Sattut, who was considered a good person. This Mr. Dr. Bahadri was also considered one of the good ones and had a relationship with my late father. I already knew him, but he did not know me. He came and said hello.

He said: Do you know Mr. Bani Fazl's house?

I said: Are you Dr. Bahadri?

He said: So you are also Mr. Bani Fazl.

We hugged and greeted each other. I complimented him and he entered the house.

He said: Haj Agha, my brother Saeed Bahadri, who was the governor of Mazandaran in the former regime, has been sentenced to death. During his governorship, he has not committed any crime that warrants execution. Even during the trial, although it was public, he did not have a single complainant.

I said: Who issued the verdict?

He said: The judge of the court was Mr. Lawyer Khorasani.

I called Mr. Lawyer and raised doubts about his sentence regarding "Al-Hoodud Tadre Balshabhat".

He said: They gave orders to shoot against the demonstrators and several of them were killed and martyred.

I said: Do you know for sure that this was his personal order? Or this order was issued through the Provincial Security Council, which as the governor is one of the members of this council. In addition, the governor's and governor's signatures in this council are ceremonial, and their presence and absence are equal. Even the signature of the police chief is the same. The main effective signature in this council is the signature of the head of Savak and the military governor of the military regime.

I doubted this, but the late lawyer resisted and said: In my opinion, the sentence is final and he is sentenced to death.

I didn't say anything else. Because in any case, he was the judge of his case and his opinion and judgment were respected. I raised this issue with Mazandaran Revolution Prosecutor and he liked this suspicion. He attached my suspicion to the file and sent it to Tehran.

In Tehran, in the Court of Appeal, my suspicion was confirmed and his death sentence was changed to three years in prison. It was also because they said that you should have resigned from the position of governor and joined the ranks of the people, why didn't you do that, which of course was true.

Memoirs of Ayatollah Morteza Bani Fazl, edited by: Abdul Rahim Abazari, publisher: Center for Islamic Revolution Records, pp. 261-261