In January 1979, Oveissi was pressured to resign and leave the country. He settled in France just before the Iranian revolution on 11 February. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, a religious judge and then chairman of the Revolutionary Court, informed the press that the death sentence was passed on the members of the Pahlavi family and former Shah officials, including Oveissi.