Cinema Rex Fire - Post-Islamic Revolution Follow Up of The Case

Post-Islamic Revolution Follow Up of The Case

According to the Washington-based IranRights.org, the families of the victims followed up the case and the newly established Islamic regime arrested Captain Monir Taheri. The Revolutionary Tribunal of Rudsar showed that Captain Taheri had received guerrilla training in the United States, while the defense maintained that Taheri had never visited Abadan, stressing that he was in Ahvaz at the time of the blaze. The revolutionary tribunal found Taheri "guilty" and executed him shortly thereafter on February 23, 1979.

According to Washington-based IranRights.org:

The day after Captain Taheri’s execution, his family asserted his innocence in an open letter published in the press and called on his fellow officers to come forward and testify. The letter also refuted the allegation regarding the defendant's guerrlla training in the US and referred to the fact that he had never traveled outside Iran. The letter refuted the charge related to the Cinema Rex fire noting that Captain Taheri had never been in Abadan and that there are documents proving that at that time he was on vacation elsewhere. The Medal of Honor, it stressed, was given to him prior to the Rex Cinema fire.

After an effective public campaign headed by disillusioned families of Cinema Rex victims, that included a four-and-a-half month sit-in at a government office, a representative of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Zia Rohani, presided over a public trial that would reopen the Cinema Rex case for the final time.

Lasting from August 25 to September 4, 1980, the Revolutionary Tribunal would oversee seventeen court sessions that involved the trial of twenty six individuals, including the only survivor of the four-man arson team. After much deliberation, Hossein Takbalizadeh, the lone surviving arsonist, and five others were put to death in public.

“In his defense statement, the principal defendant admitted to having started the fire along with three other religious activists and denied having had connections with the former regime’s security apparatus.” Many families believed that the main group that was leading the religious activists involved in the tragedy escaped justice.