BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, April 24, 2025, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the assassination of Professor Kazem Rajavi, an esteemed human rights advocate, legal scholar, and the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Switzerland. He was gunned down on April 24, 1990, by agents of the Iranian regime.
His cold-blooded assassination, ordered at the highest levels in Tehran, aimed to silence a steadfast voice for justice.
The bitter moment of receiving that morning call, with news of his assassination, is etched in my memory. His passion, resolve, and honesty have profoundly shaped me over the years.
Dr. Rajavi, the elder brother of the Iranian Resistance leader Massoud Rajavi, worked tirelessly at the United Nations in Geneva and New York to expose the regime’s crimes and defend Iran’s political prisoners. That’s precisely why he was targeted. His murder in broad daylight was part of a terror campaign that Tehran still wages against dissidents, especially the NCRI and its principal member, the MEK.
Swiss magistrate Roland Chatelain and law enforcement confirmed the regime’s role in the plot, ordered by the regime’s then president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and carried out by thirteen agents who entered Switzerland using “service passports” in consecutive numbers issued by Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
Since the 1980s, Tehran has used embassies and diplomats to plan terrorist plots across Europe. The foiled 2018 bombing of the Free Iran World Summit in Paris—attended by over 100,000 Resistance supporters—was orchestrated by a regime’s sitting diplomat.
These embassies serve as operational hubs for Tehran’s intelligence network. They enable terrorist activities through diplomatic cover, command structures, logistics, and cash.
As Iranians continue to rise for freedom and regime change, and as the NCRI gains growing recognition, the regime grows more desperate—and more dangerous. Assassinations, executions, and disinformation remain its core tools of survival.
On this anniversary, we remember Dr. Kazem Rajavi with resolve. His legacy lives on in the movement for a democratic, secular, non-nuclear republic in Iran.
Those behind his murder must be held accountable—and the regime behind it must be replaced. And it will happen.