Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (68)

Edited by Mohsen Kazemi

Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (68)
Edited by Mohsen Kazemi
Soureh Mehr Publishing Company
(Original Text in Persian, 2000)
Translated by Mohammad Karimi

The Police Hospital
After arriving in hospital they put me on a stretcher. The agents would not lose any chance and persistently would ask: “What’s your name?” When the pressure of their questions would increase I would faint. They would wake me up again and again with their own methods such as pulling my hair or slapping on my face. After few minutes they pushed the stretcher to operating room. I do not remember who did the surgery on me and how. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in room and on a bed numbered 62 with a white sheet on. Then after the hospital personnel would call me “No. 62”. [1]
Two SAVAK agents would were there. They would change every 8 hours for guarding me. Two agents named Faramarzi and Shadi were persistent on interrogating me before I losing the credibility of my information; however, I still hoped to die and while tolerating their pressures I would not say anything.
I do not remember if I had said my prayers on those days. Once I heard the morning call. I opened my eyes. I saw that I was still alive! So, I lost any hope to die. I looked at my hand. It was bloody. My voice was rough. I could not call anyone. I got ready for prayers anyway. I said my prayers. I do not know how right or wrong was my prayers; but it was the most that I could do. I wish those prayers would accepted for me on Judgment Day.
The agent there went out and called someone inside and said: “It seems he is awake and talking to himself!”
The second day after some hours my awareness degree grew higher and then I felt more pain either. It was a hard pain. I felt the bullets had crashed my bones because with each little move I would faint. They would inject pain relief drugs. By these injections I would sleep long time and after waking up the pain would begin again.
On the third day, they showed me picture and said: “It’s you.” I noticed it was my brother, Mehdi. I neither affirm nor deny. They insisted to get an answer from me. I finally said: “This man is older than me. How can it be my picture?!” I could see the surprise in their faces. Then I suddenly noticed there were some of the books that I would have kept in the house in Moezzossoltan Street stacked on each other. I got sure about Mohsen Tarighat’s betray.
The agent did not really know my name. They had found an ID card of mine with name of Ahmad Akbari on. However, they knew it was not my real name. When I understood that the house in Moezzossoltan (Mehdi Moosh) Street had been revealed, I told them the address.
After few days the pressure of interrogators increased. I finally admitted that I was Ahmad Ahmad. The agents happy of their success wired Manouchehri and told him: “His name is Ahmad Ahmad.” Manouchehri said: “oh…I see…he was familiar to me. I wish I had killed him right there…”
After identifying me they brought my file and told me that they knew everything about me. They asked: “Who was your other friend?” Without mentioning his real name I said: “Meysam.” They asked about his surname. They pretended that he had been killed. I was also sure that he had been killed because at the time of shooting I heard a woman shouted: “…you killed the young man of people…!” Since I was alive I would think that Meysam had been killed. I was really sad of this accident and I felt that I was responsible for his death. I thought that if I had surrendered, he might have been alive then.

Meysam is Alive

SAVAKIs would guard in turns. Every morning, at 8 o’clock, each four people would gather around each other and speak on a bench in the corridor of hospital. About a month later, one day when the door was open I could hear their conversation. One said: “He shot three times; one of them was so close to me… Dr. Manouchehri was inside the car and when he saw that he was running away, he shot his left leg. I stood and shot his right leg. I saw he fell down…but his friend escaped…” He said: “When his friend escaped I got really happy. It seemed they were giving me the world. I said thank God!” Then he added: “… when he was escaping, school kids burst out of school. We ran to get him but he could reach to Rey Street. We could shoot his right hand from that far distance. I did not know how a Zhian (Citroen) arrived and he jumped in and escaped. We chased him. We could find that Zhian in Narmak. But he had escaped. We beat the driver hardly to reveal him. But he insisted that he was innocent and only a government clerk. He said that he had been going home and that guy had forced him by knife to take him. We found that he had injured that poor man too. His back was bloody. It was interesting that he had thrown a 20 Tomans note inside the car…!” [2] Hearing these sentences from SAVAKIs I got really happy and felt relaxed.
After being informed that Meysam was alive, I began telling some true points about the misleading inside MKO and also untrue things about Meysam and myself to them. I said: “I did not think that you were agents. I carry arms because of the threat of being assassinated by MKO. I thought you were from MKO military branch and because of this feeling I shot. Otherwise, I would not do that because it is a long time that I have left the struggle against the government.
One day, Manouchehri came and said: “What did happen Ahmad, the team-houses that you were in did such that corruption?” I confirmed it and told him that I had separated from them for those matters. Then I explained for him how they changed their ideology. I told him: “I have two enemies. You were my enemy; but I knew your identity. But they (MKO) hoaxed us. We could not know their identity. They were snakes being grown up inside our sleeves. If I had been killed by each of them I would consider myself in heaven. However, these (MKO) are much more dangerous than you.

1- Ms. Parvin Moslehi, one the personnel in “The Police (Shahrbani) Hospital”, says: “We would never know any name. We even had made a notebook for ourselves for a day that if a patient referred again; we could be able to have his/her records. We had used numbers for them.
Oral History Unit Archive-The Bureau for the Islamic Revolution Literature
2- Haj Ali Heydari narrates the matter for Ahmad in Evin Prison like this: “…when Meysam reaches Rey Street his hand is shot. He stops a Zhian and threatens the driver by a knife on his neck. He would take him to Narmak. There, Meysam would put the knife on his neck. The scared driver would tell him: “I took you wherever you wanted. Aren’t you a Muslim? Why are you going to kill me?” Meysam tells him: “I do not want to kill you; I just make small injury on you and ot would in benefit of you…”
Eng. Mohammad Tavassoli wrote for us: “The late Majid Tavassoli had an appointment with Mr. Ahmad Ahmad in front of Refah High School on May 19th 1976. They got surrounded there by SAVAK agents and despite being injured from his shoulder; he could escape by threatening a pickup driver and would reach himself to the house of Eng. Mehdi Rezaee in Samangan Street in Narmak. Instantly he would change his clothes and figure and leave there while still bleeding. The pickup driver would inform the police and in short they would surround Mr. Rezaee’s house and also his father’s grocery shop. They would ignore and deny everything and police would not find any sign from him there. The late Majid would reach himself to the house of Eng. Hashem Sabaghiyan. After consultation he decides to go to the house of Eng. Abbas Tavassoli near Hosseymiyyeh Ershad. Among a group of known doctors, Dr. Toluee accepts the responsibility and does the surgery on him for taking out the bullet and then would bandage his hand several times. He would stay in the house of Eng. Mir Hussein Musavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard in Sohrevardi Street and they would take care of him. After getting well he would leave there and hide in his own secret house. Later it was revealed one of his secure houses was the house of Seyyed Ali Akbar Abutorabi Fard in Qum and the late Seyyed Ali Andarzgou has had contacts with him. Scattered information shows that he was martyred in fall of 1977 in a street fight in Ahmad Abad Street in Mashhad and buried in public cemetery of Mashhad in the section of unknown bodies; because his ID card was a forged one and SAVAK would never find out his real identity.”
Oral History Unit Archive-The Bureau for the Islamic Revolution Literature