French daily: Iran’s Ahmadinejad was key US embassy hostage-taker

Iran Focus: Paris, Jun. 29 – A principal French daily reported that newly-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in charge of security at the United States embassy in Tehran after he and fellow radical students loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over the compound by force in November 1979. Iran Focus

Paris, Jun. 29 – A principal French daily reported that newly-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in charge of security at the United States embassy in Tehran after he and fellow radical students loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over the compound by force in November 1979.

Libération wrote that Ahmadinejad was a member of Students Following the Line of the Imam [Khomeini”> and a leader of the hostage-takers who held American diplomats and embassy staff for 444 days.

“In 1981 he joined the forces of [Assadollah”> Lajevardi, the Revolutionary Prosecutor in Evin Prison who executed hundreds of [political”> prisoners every night”, the daily added.

According to Libération, Ahmadinejad subsequently joined the Special Forces branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and later became a commander of the IRGC Qods (Jerusalem) Force and was responsible for the destruction of Iran’s opposition.

Former political prisoners who were in Evin Prison in 1981 have said Ahmadinejad was known to them as “Tir Khalas Zan”, literally meaning “he who fires coup de grace”.

The government-run website Baztab quoted allies of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami as confirming that Ahmadinejad fired coup de grace at prisoners who were executed in Evin Prison in the 1980s.

Iran’s clerical leaders have not shown any reaction so far to the growing controversy over the new president’s past involvement in terrorism and human rights violations.