# Majid Kavousifar

Majid Kavousifar (Persian: مجید کاووسی‌فر) was an Iranian man who, along with his nephew Hossein Kavousifar, was convicted of the murder of Judge Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi. Majid and Hossein Kavousifar were both publicly executed by hanging in Tehran in August 2007.

## Assassination of Islamic Republic Judge Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi

Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi was one of several judges of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court, that collectively sentenced more than 2800 to 3800 political prisoners to execution during the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners. The mass executions were largely thought to be a political purge with Operation Mersad preceding the executions. Judge Moghaddasi also presided over the trials of Iranian political dissidents, such as Akbar Ganji.
As Judge Moghaddasi was leaving a court building in Tehran on 2 August 2005, an assailant on a motorcycle shot the judge twice with a pistol, killing him. That assailant was subsequently identified as Majid Kavousifar.

## Escape from Iran, and arrest

After murdering Judge Moghaddasi, Majid Kavousifar escaped from Iran to United Arab Emirates and went to the United States embassy to apply for refugee status. Instead, the embassy surrendered him to Emirati police, and the UAE extradited Kavousifar to Iran in 2006.

## Confession

After their arrest, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence interrogated the Kavousifars, and determined that the duo murdered Judge Moghaddasi because of personal motivations, and not for political reasons. Majid confessed to the murder of Judge Moghaddasi after three hours of interrogation. Majid also confessed that prior to the murder of Judge Moghaddasi, he committed an armed bank robbery where he killed a bank guard and a customer, as well as wounding another employee and three police officers, stealing the handguns of the guards of two other banks, keeping three illegal weapons and ammunition, participating in the armed robbery of five other banks, three private cars, and stole a weapon from a guard of the Kyrgyz embassy.

## Trial

Majid and Hossein Kavousifar were tried before Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Majid testified in court to killing Judge Moghaddasi, claiming that his motive was because the judge had wrongly convicted him of alcohol possession (which is a crime under Iran's version of Islamic law) on a previous occasion. During that previous trial, Judge Moghaddasi sentenced Majid to be whipped, but subsequently reduced his punishment to a cash fine. Because of this experience, Majid concluded that Judge Moghaddasi was a corrupt and unjust judge, and retaliated by killing him.

## Sentencing

On 14 March 2007, the Revolutionary Court found Majid guilty of spreading corruption on the earth, the assassination of Judge Moghaddasi, murder of two other individuals, armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms, creating terror and panic and depriving the people of their freedom and security. Majid was then sentenced to the death penalty. Hossein was charged with the assassination of Judge Moghaddasi, stealing the weapon of the Kyrgyz embassy guard, armed robbery of a bank and two cars, possession of illegal weapons and their ammunition, creating terror and panic and depriving the people of their freedom and security. Hossein was given the death penalty, and in addition was found guilty of a separate charge for using crack cocaine, for which he was fined one million tomans and ordered to receive 74 lashes.

## Execution

Majid and Hossein were both hanged in public on 2 August 2007, in front of the Ershad Judiciary Complex in central Tehran. At the time, the Kavousifars' hangings were the first public executions carried out in Tehran in five years. Majid and Hossein were hanged from ropes attached to five meter long cranes; however, both men were placed atop stools, which were pulled from under their feet at the moment of their execution. Majid appeared to die instantly, while Hossein struggled for a few moments before going limp. After several minutes, their bodies were removed and placed into an ambulance.
Hossein Kavousifar appeared visibly distressed as he awaited his execution, but his uncle (Majid) gestured to him and smiled in an attempt to reassure him. Majid Kavousifar showed no remorse to police officers in his last words, telling them, "I reached the point at which I decided to eradicate any injustice." Majid was described in one report as "waving one hand from his handcuffs at his co-conspirator at [sic] the watching crowds" and making "a show of puffing out his chest, grinning at the crowds and even chatting to the burly black-clad executioner, in an apparent final check of the execution procedure."

## Internet popularity

Photos of Majid Kavousifar's execution went viral in the late 2010s with fictional stories like "a Christian got executed in a Muslim country" or "an Algerian hacker who was executed for stealing money from Israeli banks."