Israel Matzav

Mossad confirms: 8 of 11 Iranian Jews missing since 90's were murdered

The Mossad has confirmed that eight of eleven Iranian Jews who have been missing since the 90's were murdered while trying to escape Iran to Israel.

The families of eight out of eleven Iranian Jews who went missing while attempting to escape Iran two decades ago, received notifications from the Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center that their relatives were murdered while attempting to immigrate to Israel.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that he had ordered the 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations' (Mossad) to extend the investigation into the disappearance of the eleven Iranian Jews.


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In 1994 and again in 1997, eleven Iranian Jews in four separate groups attempted to escape from Iran and cross the border into neighboring countries. While making the attempt, all eleven Jews disappeared. Their disappearances remained unsolved for years and their relatives remained in the dark as to what happened to them.

The official information regarding the eight murdered Jews was passed on to former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who concluded that the evidence was sufficient to declare the eight Jewish persons as officially deceased, by Jewish law, permitting the families to finally mourn and feel closure.

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The investigation into the fate of the remaining three Iranian Jews, who disappeared in 1997, remains ongoing.  The three men who are still unnaccounted for are Nouralla Rabizade and two brothers, Syrous and Ibrahim Ghahremani.

A report by the NYTimes in 2000 speculated that the three men were detained by Iranian security forces while attempting to flee the country through the city of Zahedan on the border Pakistan, a known rout for drug trafficking. The report cited Israeli officials and Iranian Jewish leaders saying that they believed  at least some of the three men were alive and in prison; where sightings by other prisoners had allegedly been reported.

Arutz Sheva adds:

The families of the eight had pressed the government to seek information about their fate as part of its past prisoner swaps with Iranian-backed Lebanese terror militia Hezbollah.

In a statement, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said that the Mossad had investigated and "received from a reliable source, privy to the details, information that these Jews were captured and murdered while escaping (Iran)."

The statement did not say who carried out the killings.

It described the eight as part of a group of 11 missing Iranian Jews, but it did not name them or offer an explanation as to the discrepancy with the U.S. figure of 12.

I can think of some other families who could use some closure about the fate of their loved ones. 

Labels: Iran, Mossad

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:44 PM