I heard the very tragic news about Manouchehr Farhangi’s murder in Madrid two days ago, but was hoping to receive more information from Spain before publishing a post. Apparently, not a great deal is currently available. Authorities in Spain as yet have not caught the person (or people) responsible for his murder, but investigations are continuing. However, according to VOA News (Persian) - Spanish Police suspects a woman aged between 28 - 30. Based on the testimony of a Spanish woman & camera recordings, Spanish police announced that Manouchehr Farhangi was murdered a day after an argument took place between he and the suspected woman over her putthing up propaganda posters for the IRI regime.
Manouchehr Farhangi - 82 years old - was stabbed 3 times on March 20 2008 (1st of Farvardin - first day of NoRooz), allegedly by the Islamic Republic’s assassins - IranPressNews (Persian). He is survived by his wife and his two sons Ramin and Ramesh Farhangi. The assassination of numerous other prominent Iranians in exile, who are perceived as real threats to the Islamic Republic is not a secret - previous examples include Dr. Shahpour Bakhtiar in 1991 and Fereydoun Farrokhzad in 1992.
Dr Farhangi was born into a Zoroastrian family in 1926 in the province of Kerman in Iran. A man of great integrity, he was an Iranian philanthropist and a successful businessman, with deep respect for and tireless efforts to promote ancient Iranian culture and history. Dr Manouchehr Farhangi, founder of ICS (International College Spain), was recently awarded the ECIS (European Council for International Schools) prize for the Promotion of International Education. I should note that International College Spain (ICS) was a key supporter of and a financial donor to the Bas-Relief project of Cyrus the Great in Australia in the mid 1990’s. Mr Farhangi will be tremendously missed.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr Manouchehr Farhangi.
You can read more about this tragedy as well as Mr Manouchehr Farhangi’s life and achievements in Persian here - and in memoriam from WZC in Persian and here - credit for the top photo here
Updated (2) - March 29, 2008 - thinkSPAIN
” Police have ruled out politics and revenge as possible motives for the apparently senseless murder of 82 year old Iranian dissident millionaire, Manouchehr Farhangi, who was stabbed in the abdomen three times at his home in the Hortaleza district of Alcobendas on the outskirts of Madrid on March 19th. He died hours later, shortly after being admitted to La Paz Hospital in Madrid. “
” A 24 year old woman (Edislane TA) who was arrested after trying to stab a second man in the same area later the same day, is being held on charges of murder and attempted murder at Soto del Real jail just outside the capital. “
Awful news..he looks a very kind man. hope the culprits are brought to justice. Justice will prevail!
A rough and summary translation, by a Spanish reader of blog, of what was published in EL PAIS newspaper:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/policia/investiga/movil/politico/asesinato/millonario/irani/elpepiesp/20080321elpepinac_9/Tes
EL PAIS is one main newspaper in Spain with considerable number of readers.
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1,70 meters tall woman, tanned skin and slim. This is the brief portrait that has been done by the police about the person that past wednesday killed Manouchehr Farhangi with 3 knife-stabs, an iranian 82 years old, on his luxury chalet on La Moraleja, on Alcobendas (Madrid, 105.900 population). The victim, disident of regime of Mahmud Ahmadineyad (IRI), founded in 1980 the International College Spain, a high level college. Police sources maintain that the reason for the crime could have been political, but they don’t discard other hypothesis.
The facts happened at 12.15 at wednesday on Cuesta de la Sierra St., 12 at La Moraleja. The murderer of Farhangi called to the door of the chalet and without uttering any words stabbed him. Farhangi died some hours later while he was at La Paz Hospital.
The police is trying to rebuild the path followed by the murderer on her run away, thanks to plenty of videocams on the zone. The Local Police recovered few moments later a 3/4 dark coat that the criminal threw away to have more freedom of movements and not been recognized. She was walking around 2 kilometers, from the crime scene to the comercial center Diversia, on Bruselas Avenue. There is a witness who saw her taking a taxi. The agents on Group X [Ten] of Homicides have centered their investigations to locate the taxi driver to learn where he had left the passenger. The testimony of a witness and recordings viewed by the police have taken a first image from the murderer. She is (suspected) a woman between 28 and 30 years old, slim and with the face very tanned.
The police sustains that the homicide was done the next day after the dead man had an argument with a woman in the center of Alcobendas. She was putting posters in favor of the Islamic regime in Iran, a fact that was recriminated by Farhangi.
Farhangi was born on January 5th 1926 in a zoroatrian family in the old city of Kerman, as published in paper Persian Mirror. Years later, he opened a pharmaceutic enterprise with his brothers. After ayatollahs revolution, Farhangi was accused on islamic tribunal hounded and verbally abused. After doing a short travel to London, his employees comunicated to him that revolutionarians had sacked his belongings and fired his home, including his various libraries.
How barbaric that this giant of a human being was brought down so cowardly. But nothing about this IRI regime is connected to human activity. They are animals act as their Arab ancestors of 1400 years ago. Animalistic characteristics begets animalistic behaviour.
I knew him, and am proud that he was an instrumental figure in my life, and am proud that wrote an article on his life’s accomplishments on http://www.persianmirror.com
Thank you for the information. So sad to hear this news and so upsetting that this crime was not reported widely and only Iran press news has posted this news in Persian on it’s website. I have a Persian radio show in Ottawa Canada and read this sad news on our last night’s news part. http://www.RadioHamseda.net
On behalf of Radio Hamseda Ottawa, I send my sincere condolences to Dr. Farhangi’s family and all Iranians and non Iranians.
In peace,
Producer, Radio Hamseda
very unhappy sad to hear the news
روحش شاد و بهشت برین جایگاهش باد
[...] http://plateauofiran.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/manouchehr-farhangi-was-murdered-in-madrid-spain/ [...]
Mr Ghaffari: thank you for your comment.
I would like to quote this sentence from your article in Persianmirror which I believe holds very true - (a direct link to the webpage of your article had been added to Manouchehr Farhangi’s name in this post).
“Just imagine where Iran would be today if philanthropists, educators, businessmen, like Farhangi were allowed to exert their energies for their own homeland instead of that of democratic Western nations?”
The Islamic Republic has hit a new low. They have murdered one of the most loving Iranians who have only worked to make the lives of other Iranians better. I knew Mr Farhangi very well and he was nothing but a gentlement and above all a teacher. This Islamic regime has nothing but blood on their hands. I guess people who cannot open to dialogue can only commit animalistic behaviour!
I just came across this article published on “Iran-Resist” .
I’d like to note for those who are unaware that, to my knowledge, Iran-Resist website is not related in any way to any Marxist or Communist groups. Nor is it a Zoroastrian website. Iran-Resist publishes Iran related articles and news in French and Persian, and is based in France.
http://www.iran-resist.org/article4326
Below is my English translation of the bulk of the article (original in French). You can read the full article in French as linked.
———————————————————-
An Iranian exile assassinated in Madrid:
Once again, the Iranian exiles are reduced to count their deaths. On Thursday, the day of the Persian year (Nowrouz), Manouchehr Farhangi, distinguished zoroastrian patron of the arts living in Madrid, was stabbed to death.
Mr Farhangi, 82 years old, is the third zoroastrian killed in the last three years. Others include Mr Felfeli, also murdered in Spain, and Mr Vafadari, stabbed in Paris. Besides their religion, these three personalities had their love for their homeland in common, as indicated by their patronage of the cultural activities regarding pre-Islamic Iran (the ancient Persia). Obviously, true Iranian identity endangers the Shiism of the mollahs which reacts as always without any keeping or measure.
History of facts: On Tuesday evening, Mr Farhangi went to a party organized on the occasion of the holiday of fire (Charshanbe Souri), celebrated by the Iranians last Tuesday evening of the year. In front of the stand held by the embassy of mollahs, he had a verbal brawl with an Islamic young woman. The following day, an Iranian whom he did not know called him on the telephone and asked him for his help.
Later, a 20 something year old woman stabbed Mr Farhangi in the abdomen which also injured the kidney area. The attacker fled in the taxi which she had taken. Waiting for his customer far from the stage of crime, the driver of the taxi would not have been a witness of facts. Mr Farhangi was transported to the hospital, but died during the operation. However, before losing consciousness, he had the time to give some details to a member of his family who relayed them us. This information was supported by the story of the oculomotor witnesses.
Anxiety: We hope that mass media will not write this off as done in the past, and transform this affair into a banal news item, overlooking the victim to protect the murderers. In effect, three years after the assassination in Paris of another Zoroastrian, Kasra Vafadari, the inquiry avoids recalling any relation between one or several murderers and the Islamic Republic.
Kasra Vafadari, professor in the University of Nanterre was stabbed in his flat in Paris on May 17th, 2005 by an Iranian asylum-seeker, possibly assisted by another person not found/identified to this day.
Regarding Mr Kasra Vafadari: The murderer would have been spotted by security police: it was part of a group of four persons forming a still cell in France. He was member of Pasdarans (IR revolutionary guard) attached to the air force. Before arriving in France, he had stayed in Kosovo where he had accepted a training of commando. His true forename Mehdi, later called Shahine (a non Islamic Iranian forename). In spite of this cloudy past, the murder of Kasra Vafadari is passed off as a simple affair of morality today, implying the relations which Mehdi (Shahine) could have had with the spouse of the victim.
Fright of the abandonment of Islam: The religion of the victim is not an unrelated reason for the murder. Recently, during one sermon (see Video link below), a mollah asserted: « it is not the time to convert the Sunni to Shiism, let them remain Sunni; equally it is no longer time to convert the Christians to Shiism », but « the most significant will be the conversion of our young from Shi’ism to Zoroastrianism. »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC9YeU7Ht6g
The abandonment of Islam and attraction towards pre-Islamic Iran from which Mazdéisme (Zoroastrianism - Mazdayasna) is the element, is the best proof of the rejection of Islamic revolution outright.
See other links in the original French article (scroll down).
Every one speaks as if we know that Islamic government is
behind this. I hate IRI but need prove of that. I don’ think
we are still sure they did it.
SaeedB: No, as yet, we aren’t sure if IRI is behind it, but IRI has an abominable trackrecord, and is no secret that they feel threatened by anything political, social, or cultural that works to their disadvantage.
IRI prefers to keep people (Iranians or non-Iranians) subjected to their own ideology, more so often using Islam as a tool; that, to me, over the past 30 years is proven.
Either way, I do hope they catch the true person(s) who committed this crime, hopefully the authorities will be very transparent with the process and outcome. Such an heinous crime should not be whitewashed.
A terrible crime, no questions about it. However, as SaeedB mentioned we should not jump to conclusion and accuse persons or regimes without proof. This will bring our credibility under question. As for myself, someone who is interested in the activities of the opposition, this is the FIRST time I hear of Dr. Farhangi’s name. So someone so obscure cannot be of any threat to the regime. It must be cleared what was the relationship of Dr. Farhangi with the woman who is allegedly the killer. Without trying to accuse anyone of anything, I have to raise the question of romance between the two. It appears that Dr. Farhangi was a widower. Therefore, there are other possibilities too.
Let’s wait and see what the truth is. May God rest his soul!
Mike:
I would question the credibility of any person who leaves a comment such as yourself, and says that you are “who is interested in the activities of the opposition”, and ignores the history between IRI and Mr Farhangi, and the facts of what took place before Mr Farhangi’s death as specified in El Pais newspaper, and other sources/info mentioned/outlined in this thread.
I would have to further question you, who appear to dismiss the whole thing as “I have to raise the question of romance between the two” because ” it appears that Dr. Farhangi was a widower”. Was there ever such a history mentioned elsewhere, or is it your confabulation, or, perhaps, you have intimate knowledge?
But, I think you are right. It is best to leave it to when the truth surfaces rather than you appearing to lobby on behalf of or trying to exonerate the IRI, out of Los Angeles. Thanks!
P.S. - thousands of Iranians IRI has executed particularly in Iran over the last 30 years were “obscure” too by your definition.
It was very common for the Islamic Ministry of Intelligence and Security to kill dissidents in the late 1990’s in Iran and then start a campaign of character assassination against the victim, and also very sadly towards the members of the victim’s family members. After the brutal deaths of many of the activists, there are many instances when the Islamic republic took into custody members of the victims’ family and friends and tortured or mistreated them to see if they break. Really the main reason was to divert attention from the act of terror and also to make sure the family and friends are not aware of any important evidence and also try to discourage them to seek or expose any evidence. It is sad to see the same pattern now showing up in Europe in this form again, I wonder if Fallahian is behind this again, the signs of the way it was carried out and the media campaign in Iran and abroad are his signatures.
Saggezard:
I’ve updated the post with the latest developments.
They are now saying that the person with whom Farhangi had an argument (at Charshanbe Souri celebrations) the night before he was killed was not a woman, but a man! It took them a week to figure that one out! Therefore, they say the political motivation for the murder is out:
http://www.abc.es/20080328/madrid-madrid/detenida-joven-perturbada-brasilena_200803280849.html
Now, I can understand a mentally disturbed woman, as they say this 24 yo is, trying to suddenly stab a random someone out in the street. But, I cannot understand why the same woman should take a taxi, ask for the taxi to wait some distance away, go to someone’s house, ring the doorbell, stab the victim, then go back and take off in the same taxi, meantime deliberately losing an overcoat to not be identified…. it sounded pre-meditated and pre-planned. There are so many things that do not add up… maybe the reports are confusing or I don’t understand them….
Anyway, I doubt this will be linked in any way to IRI, even if in fact it is the case - for starters, it will be too sensitive and political especially given the climate with nuclear power, sanctions, etc…
Two days after the murder, Shahab News (mouthpiece for IRI) started its campaign on the internet in Persian about the El Pais reporting the incident, based on the initial statement by Spanish police, as “politically motivated”. IRNA (another IRI mouthpiece) tried to portray the murder as a “crime of passion” between Farhangi and the suspected woman. So…..I don’t know.
Stranger things have happened. An elderly prominent writer, who had an important was working on a very important work about Iran, who we shall keep secret for now for the safety of his family and the ongoing work on the book, was was injured by a man and was not expected to survive. About a month later at the hospital in recovery the wrong medication was given which immediately killed the writer.
In Iran the cars belonging to victims’ families would be towed while they sat in their cars at intersections, numerous times days after the murder. Family members would be found crushed under the wheel of their own cars in their own garages. Outrageous news would surface, stories about involvement in organized crime, lovers and alleged double lives and secret families would appear and disappear. It sounds surreal, but it is the reality which the MOIS tries to skillfully control, in order to allow the dust to settle. It is essential to do independent investigation, and archiving of all the records and evidence, including phone records, contacts, movements, because sooner or later someone involved would blink and spill the beans and the puzzle will fit perfectly.
“Rocambolesca” in Spanish means incredible and farfetched. That is how the ABC.es article literally describes the finding. My question is whether the clothing item is the only evidence linking the murderer to the stabbing. Or is there any more evidence, is the camera image clear enough to positively identify the assailant. You know, planting of evidence is done more often than anyone believes, did you know that even fingerprints could be lifted and placed at a crime scene to implicate others. As you can probably tell I have a little experience in such matters. I would not believe anything until all evidence are studied, even then it can take years to get the whole scoop. It is always a very sad and frustrating matter when murders happen this way.
Very interesting … I agree with you about studying all the evidence. I’m sure other information will become available in due course.
… I hope if one day I reach the age of 82… if ever…someone would come gun down me right on my door steps right after finishing up my birthday cake…. to make sure there will be hope and future and place for the next generation that is about to ashur in …
Ashure in… ashure out…
make sure you attach tranquilizer to the bullet before shooting … for eveyone deserves a civlized death in the age of post-hanging era…
… what ever…
I had an email from a Spanish friend 2 days ago which I’d like to share:
He said:
“I wanted to tell you that on saturday we had a Rumi Concert in Madrid at a catholic open-mind church, with around 350 people listening with pleasure and before the concert my friend Ahmad (the organizer) said that the idea of the concert came from a conversation with Manouchehr Farhangi and talked about his dead (with not details) and his family was on the first row ot seats dressed on black but very firm and they were ovationed by the public. The concert was dedicated to him.”