Death of Noureddin Kianouri
Statement of the CC of the Tudeh Party of
Iran, November 6, 1999
Comrade Noureddin Kianouri died on Friday 5th of November 1999, at the age of 84, having suffered years of persecution, imprisonment and torture in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. Comrade Kianouri was born in 1915 in the town of Nour in Mazandaraan, northern Iran. In 1942, as a young man, he entered the struggle against colonialism and exploitation and joined the ranks of the Tudeh Party of Iran. In 1945, he became a member of the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party. During the events leading to the 1979 Revolution [when the repressive regime of the pro-USA Shah of Iran was overthrown by a mass uprising of the people], comrade Kianouri was elected first Secretary of the Central Committee and remained in that position until his arrest in February 1983. Comrade Kianouri was among the first party leaders arrested in the wave of attacks by the regime. He was immediately subjected to the most brutal torture. After months of constant and savage torture the regime finally paraded the broken and half paralysed body of comrade Kianouri in front of the television cameras to renege on the beliefs he had held for 50 years, "denying" the historic legitimacy of the Tudeh Party of Iran and "confessing" to uncommitted "crimes", evoking scenes of Galileo's trials and confession. Rather than bringing under question the correctness of the Tudeh Party of Iran, this horrific act exposed the inhuman nature of the regime and its readiness to resort to the most brutal means to claim legitimacy for itself. Fearful of the growing influence of the Tudeh Party of Iran among the working people, the regime planned the brutal suppression of the Tudeh Party and the ultimate defeat of the 1979 Revolution. Despite the regime's torture of the imprisoned leaders of the Party, when comrade Kianouri met Ronaldo Galindo Pohl, the UN special envoy to Iran, he exposed the regime's heinous crimes in prison. Galindo Pohl reported: "Three former members of the Tudeh Party are incarcerated in solitary confinement: Mr Kianouri, the former first Secretary, one top level cadre and a party member. Only Mr Kianouri agreed to have his name mentioned in the report. "He strongly denied that he was a foreign agent and had attempted to overthrow the revolutionary government. He confirmed, in the presence of the prison staff and officials, that he had been tortured. "He showed his half-paralysed arms and broken fingers and spoke of other means of torture. Mr Kianouri, the former first Secretary of the Tudeh Party, condemned the execution of thousands of young people, who he said were innocent." (Excerpt from the report of UN special envoy to Tehran — March 1989) This was the reason the Islamic Republican regime had him under constant surveillance, up to the last days of his life, even despite his old age and extreme poor health, lest the scale of its crimes in prison might be exposed further. In recent years, the regime's Ministry of Information made futile attempts to re-package and represent its "show of confessions" by publishing a book entitled Kianouri's Memoirs and other articles and interviews. This effort was defeated both inside Iran and abroad by the alertness of the Party and its members. Comrade Kianouri played a prominent role in the contemporary history of our country. He leaves dozens of articles, and papers of various political and organisational matters. We express our condolences to comrade Kianouri's wife and daughter, and all the members and supporters of the Tudeh Party of Iran.