Ali Akbar Tabatabaei

Ali Akbar Tabatabaei (Persian: علی‌اکبر طباطبایی‎ English pronunciation , born in Hamedan on 4 September 1930 – died 22 July 1980) was an Iranian exile and former press attache to the Iranian embassy in the United States during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.[1]

Ali Akbar Tabatabaei
Born4 September 1930
Hamedan, Iran
Died22 July 1980 (aged 49)
Bethesda, Maryland, United States
NationalityIranian
Alma materHoward University

After the Iranian Revolution, he went into exile in the United States criticizing the regime of the Iranian Revolution. He became president of the Iran Freedom Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland.

Death

A major Iranian critic of Ruhollah Khomeini, Tabatabaei was shot on 22 July 1980 on the front door of his Bethesda, Maryland home by Dawud Salahuddin, an American Muslim convert who was associated with an Iranian militant group. Tabatabaei's murder is allegedly considered the last successful Iranian assassination plot on American soil.[2][3] Salahuddin disguised himself as a postman with a borrowed mail truck.[4]

Salahuddin stated he was paid $5,000 by Iranians to kill Tabatabaei. He is currently on the FBI fugitives list. He escaped to Iran via Paris and Geneva, reaching Tehran on 31 July 1980.[3] In a 1996 interview with ABC's 20/20, Salahuddin again confessed to killing Tabatabaei.[5] He further stated that he thought the killing was "an act of war".[3] In 2009, it was discovered that Salahuddin had been using a new name, Hassan Abdulrahman, and that he had been running the website of Press TV.[4]

References
  1. Sahimi, Mohammad (5 January 2011). "The Chain Murders: Killing Dissidents and Intellectuals, 1988–1998". PBS. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  2. Oct 2011 The last alleged Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil was a success
  3. Ira Silverman (29 July 2002). "An American Terrorist". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
  4. Mackey, Robert (16 September 2009). "Just Another American Hit Man, Actor and Journalist Living in Iran". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  5. Gibbons, Fiachra (10 January 2002). "Actor or assassin?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 May 2007.
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