Execution
Shortly after the Islamic revolution, the new government of Iran arrested Elghanian and charged him with spying. The charges included "corruption", "contacts with Israel and Zionism", "friendship with the enemies of God", "warring with God and his emissaries", and "economic imperialism". He was tried by an Islamic revolutionary tribunal and sentenced to death. A report by Time magazine states:
Elghanian, who was convicted of spying for Israel, was said to have made huge investments in Israel and to have solicited funds for the Israeli army, which the prosecution claimed made him an accomplice "in murderous air raids against innocent Palestinians."
On May 9, 1979, Elghanian was executed by a firing squad in Tehran sending shock waves through the closely knit Iranian Jewish community. He was the first Jew and one of the first civilians to be executed by the new Islamic government. This prompted the mass exodus of the once 100,000 member strong Jewish community of Iran.
Amid the post-revolution chaos, the government with its many rival factions initially refused to release Elghanian's body to his family for burial. With the intervention of Chief Rabbi Yedidia Shofet and other prominent members of the Tehran Jewish community, his body was finally released and initially buried in an unmarked grave in Tehran's Beheshtieh Jewish cemetery. Out of fear of further retaliation, only a handful of people attended Elghanian's burial. A modest tombstone was later placed on his grave making no reference to his execution.
Shortly after Elghanian's execution, the United States Senate passed a resolution authored by senator Jacob Javits to condemn his execution as well as that of other civilians as a violation of human rights in Iran.
In the aftermath of the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, there was speculation by security researchers working for Symantec that a number found in the Stuxnet code - "19790509" - which was used as a marker to identify computers that should not be affected, was a reference to his execution date.
Read more about this topic: Habib Elghanian
Famous quotes containing the word execution:
“Some hours seem not to be occasion for any deed, but for resolves to draw breath in. We do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills us, but shut our doors behind us and ramble with prepared mind, as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downward which is fed by their own albumen, ere they send one upward to the light.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Union of Religious Sentiments begets a surprising confidence and Ecclesiastical Establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the Execution of Mischievous Projects.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)