Abulhassan Banisadr - Flight and Exile

Flight and Exile

On 28 July 1981, Banisadr and Rajavi were smuggled aboard an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707 piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi. It followed a routine flight plan before deviating out of Iranian groundspace to Turkish airspace and eventually landing in Paris.

Banisadr and Rajavi found political asylum in Paris, conditional on abstaining from anti-Khomeini activities in France. This restriction was effectively ignored after France evacuated its embassy in Tehran, and Banisadr and Rajavi set up the National Council of Resistance of Iran. However, Banisadr soon fell out with Rajavi, accusing him of ideologies favouring dictatorship and violence. Furthermore, Banisadr opposed the armed opposition as initiated and sustained by Rajavi, and sought support for Iran during the war with Iraq.

In a 1991 book, Banisadr alleged covert dealing between the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign and leaders in Tehran to prolong the Iran hostage crisis before the 1980 U.S. presidential election.

In July 2009, Banisadr publicly denounced the Iranian government's conduct after the disputed presidential election: "Khamenei ordered the fraud in the presidential elections and the ensuing crackdown on protesters". He said the government was "holding on to power solely by means of violence and terror" and accused its leaders of amassing wealth for themselves, to the detriment of other Iranians.

In published articles on the 2009 Iranian election protests, he ascribed the unusually open political climate before the election to the government's great need to prove its legitimacy. However, he said the government had lost all legitimacy. In particular, the spontaneous uprising had cost it its political legitimacy, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's threats - leading to the violent crackdown - its religious legitimacy.

As of August 2011, he lives in Versailles, near Paris, in a villa closely guarded by French police.