Azemoudeh Turns on the Regime

Gen. Accuses Premier Amini Of “Illegal Acts” (1961)


Arash Norouzi

The Mossadegh Project | May 23, 2018                    


Gen. Hossein Azemoudeh In 1961, Hossein Azemoudeh, the cold-blooded prosecutor who sought the death penalty during Mossadegh’s military trial for treason, boldly called for the Amini government to be brought to court for crimes against the nation. He was promptly arrested for “anti-state” activities on July 19th.

Azemoudeh’s opposition to Prime Minister Ali Amini, a former cabinet member in Fazlollah Zahedi’s post-coup government, meant that he and the National Front — the disciples of Mossadegh, now formally banned by Amini — had a common foe. “The National Front is being sternly but not brutally repressed by Amini”, observed the State Department.1

Less than a year later, Prime Minister Amini, too, was history, resigning after differences with the Shah over military spending, although his days were numbered anyway. As one scholar put it, “The Shah both hated Amini — a hatred which became obsessive in years to come — and felt threatened by him.”2


1 STATUS REPORT—THE SITUATION IN IRAN — For Meeting of the Iran Task Force of August 2, 1961

2 The Political Economy of Modern Iran: Despotism and Pseudo-Modernism, 1926–1979 (1981) by Homa Katouzian




June 15, 1961
Iran Regime Under Fire

TEHRAN, Iran (UPI) — Former Army Prosecutor General Hossein Azmoudeh demanded today that Iranian Premier Ali Amini and his entire cabinet be brought to court.

Azmoudeh resigned from the army prosecutor’s post only last week in protest against the arrest of four generals and because of general disagreement with the autocratic and undemocratic policies of the present government.

Azmoudeh called today for the prosecution of the Amini government for creating public unrest in a long charge sheet presented to the public prosecutor and also sent to newspapers here. He charged the Amini government with “illegal action and disorder by instigating various groups in the country against each other.”

He also claimed the government used “public propaganda and publicity as a means to discredit personalities,” acted unconstitutionally in postponing elections, illegally dispossessed people of property and gave “subversive elements fields of activity.” These “illegal acts,” Azmoudeh said, could only bring about the downfall of the nation. He said it was the “national duty” of the public prosecutor to take immediate steps to stop the Amini government’s moves.

Premier Amini and some of his ministers, meanwhile, were in Moghan and Julfa in northern Iran near the Russian border attending a ceremony for distribution of land to peasants.

Azmoudeh was the army prosecutor who demanded the death sentence for onetime Premier Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. Mossadegh was sentenced to only three years’ imprisonment after the Shah intervened, but Mossadegh’s Foreign Minister Hossein Fatemi and about 30 Iranian army officers, accused of being members of a Communist spy ring, were sentenced to death and shot while Azmoudeh was the prosecutor. [To Azemoudeh’s delight, Fatemi was executed by firing squad on Nov. 10, 1954]


CIA Weighs Ali Amini's “Serious Financial Problems”
CIA Weighs Ali Amini's “Serious Financial Problems” (June 1961)

June 20, 1961
Retired Iran General Arrested
On Charges Of Inciting Public

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Retired Gen. Hussein Azemodeh, president of an army court that tried former Premier Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 for anti-state activities, was arrested Monday on charges of inciting the public.

Azemodeh accused Premier Ali Amini’s government last Thursday of violating the constitution by delaying elections and by arresting five army generals on corruption charges.


Alternate headlines:

Iran General Held For Inciting Public
Retired Iran General Arrested On Charges Of Inciting Public
Azemodeh Arrested
Retired General Nabbed In Iran
Iran Regime Arrests Dissenting General
EX-GENERAL ARRESTED


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Related links:

Police In Tehran Club Demonstrators | January 22, 1962 (AP)

Called ‘Infidel’, Mossadegh Twice Heads for Door | November 24, 1953 (AP)

Mossadegh Trial Brings Protests; Call For Strike Execution | Nov. 11, 1953 (UPI)



MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”

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