Efforts to Preserve Evin Prison Documents

Compiled by: Islamic Revolutionary Website
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2022-6-28

It was the morning of the 23rd of Bahman (12^th of February) that the radio reported that the grounds of Evin prison had been mined. I wanted to go to Evin. Colonel Perraki and Akhavi and I went to the university, which was the main center of the struggle. I wanted a car to go to Evin. They said that a mine had been planted, and I said that I was a miner, we should go; The three of us, three of us from the university, rode a car and came to Evin. The car belonged to one of them. Before reaching Evin, there was a bridge where people had gathered near the bridge. We got off. I said that laying mines may be a lie, but we have to move on the asphalt and if we see that it has been dug, we should not leave it, which may be a mine. We pushed the people aside and because we were wearing military uniforms at this distance, we were clear and they let us go. We searched the whole bridge and went to the end where there was not even a mine. Since I was imprisoned in Evin for some time, I was familiar with the area. In the open space of Evin, under the trees, I knew where the armed officer was standing, so I told him to go and see what was going on?! As soon as we approached, shooting started. I lay down as I went forward. The shooting was from the Evin Hotel, which started until the sound of the shooting started, and the truck of the Armed Forces came and the Evin Hotel fell. Seven Savakis and two Americans were trapped in the Evin Hotel, and the news of the landmine was informed to a radio announcer from there. The clash lasted for two hours. Shortly before noon, six Savakis were arrested, and two Americans and a Savaki escaped. The brother had also become Jim at this distance. When the conflict ended, I got up and visited the place. It was a pit I went into and saw a gun slot. Several Uzi boxes and lumbar colts were financed in the greased paper. I left two people, one of whom was armed. I said do not let anyone approach this area.

      I came to the prison rooms, the keys were on the doors. I locked the open doors and walked through the closed rooms. In the kitchen, the kebabs were still hot in a large pan. I was looking for cases, especially the case of Massoud Rajavi. I knew that some groups wanted to lose the documents. I instructed the troops to guard the area and went after the documents. There were three rooms full of documents, each for a section of prisoners. I told the trusted forces to be careful of the slum ammunition. One of the militant forces in Tehran was there and told us to take ammunition and weapons to a safe place because the regime might ambush and ruin the work. It could also fall into the hands of the Fadaiyan-e-Khalq[1] and the masses. They were transferred to a safe place. I did not worry because   I already knew those forces. It was all grenades inside the cover and other weapons. I quickly searched and found the case of Massoud Rajavi. At the same time, I saw a middle-aged man and woman taking pictures and names in their hands and they want to take them, I asked where?! The gentleman said:

• I am Dr. Matinadftari. I am Dr. Mossadegh's son-in-law and my son was arrested during those years and I am looking for his photo and birds!

I said that one of these photos belongs to your son. Where do you take all the photos and names of a militant organization?! I took pictures and names and locked the room. There was nothing I could do about it. I told them if they want to go to the Imam's office.

     At the same time, an ambulance arrived and a person came and introduced himself as Dr. Golzar and that he had come to treat the wounded. He was accompanied by two people to whom he introduced them. I gave him the phone number and asked him to call and send the car so that the documents could be transferred to a safe place. Because the phone number of the Imam's office was occupied, I gave the office number of Ayatollah Taleghani, who was on the phone. I told them to send some cars when Dr. Golzar came back and said: there is no need for a telephone, we will go directly by ambulance and deliver your message.

      One or one and a half hours later, I saw three army rail trucks coming and looking for Mr. Yazdani. We loaded the documents and there were one or two cans of sugar and crumbs that we also loaded I left two armed men for each car and they left for Imam Khomeini's office. Myself in a car. I dropped Rajavi's case. Also, I found some volumes of Rezai's books. It is a pity that I did not look for my document because the main thing for me was Rajavi's document.

     It was almost evening and we had not eaten at all when I saw a woman making thirty or forty sandwiches and giving them to the guards. I took one and ate it.

     During this time, we patrolled the prison, and I was explaining to the people the different places and cells and the place of detention for Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani and myself and different places. Some prisons were built later, which I said was not our time. Everyone was interested to know what had happened here.

    One of the interesting things was that there was hot food left on the table in the whole kitchen and they ran away. Someone picked up a can in the kitchen that contained Belgian sugar. The sugars were kicked out. I said why are you doing this? He said that these belong to the Pahlavi regime. I said, "The believing man of the Pahlavi regime who has no property, these belong to the people who were robbed by the Pahlavi regime and now he is the people's property!" He went and collected the sugars and said, "Didn't Savaki touch these things?!" I said it was touched, it was not a corpse to become impure, be a little realistic!!

     I did not allow anyone to eat from the food on the table because of the possibility of poisoning. As well as the meats that I thought were foreign meat and not slaughtered according to the law, and I threw them all out. I told the others not to touch them so that the ruler of Sharia would find out his condition. After eating the housewife's good sandwich, we went to the Imam's office in the same army car that we had loaded the documents with, and we saw that two trucks had been emptied and there was no room for a third. We also took the third one to Ayatollah Taleghani's office. I had excluded the case of Rajavi and Mehdi Rezaei and Rezaei's photos, names and books.

     Later, when Rajavi was doing political activities against the revolution, suggested to Ayatollah Beheshti that these documents be published, but he did not consider them appropriate at that time. I handed over those documents to Ayatollah Beheshti and only with their permission did I take the names of the members of the organization and the photos and books of martyr Mehdi Rezaei the next day I took them to give to their families who also gave them to me and I took a copy of Rajavi's documents.

    During this time, Bakhtiar escaped and hid when the head of the interim government, the late Bazargan, later ousted him and was assassinated abroad.

Anyway, I was in Tehran on the 24th of Bahman (13^th of February), when I heard on the night of the twenty-fifth in Tabriz was in violent opposition, and I came to there at night.

Source: Nalbandi, M. (2009), Execute Me (Memoirs of Mohammad Hassan Abdizdani), Tehran, Islamic Revolutionary Documentation Center, pp. 292-295