April 19, 2019
One of the most senior members of the Majlis, Salman Khodadadi, has been convicted of rape—but he has not been sentenced to any prison time.
Khodadadi is the deputy representing the city of Malekan in East Azerbaijan province. He is chairman of the Majlis Committee for Social Affairs.
Based on local news reports, Khodadadi was sentenced to two years in internal exile, 99 lashes and a two-year ban from serving in public institutions. It wasn’t made clear if the last sentence means he will be ousted from the Majlis.
The news reports did not say who or how many women he was convicted of raping.
About four years ago, Zahra Navidpur filed charges against Khodadadi saying he had raped her in his office. The charge got no attention until a year ago when Navidpur went public, telling an expatriate broadcasting station that she had accused the deputy of rape.
On January 6, Navidpur’s corpse was discovered in her mother’s house in Khodadadi’s constituency. That drew considerable attention to her charges—and sparked much speculation that she had been murdered because of the charges she made.
In a statement issued then, the prosecutor’s office in Malekan said her death was an “apparent suicide,” but it said investigations were still underway to nail down the cause of death with certainty. There has been no further word on her cause of death.
Navidpur had released a video and audio clips in which she accused Khodadadi of sexually assaulting her when she went to him seeking a job four years ago.
Navidpur also charged that she had repeatedly been threatened by Khodadadi’s nephew, Masud Hashempur, and by Kamal Khoshpayman, a Pasdar officer.
Navidpur said she had filed complaints with the Pasdaran’s Intelligence Organization, the Intelligence Ministry and the Guardian Council.
According to Navidpur, the Guardian Council contacted her and asked her to submit her evidence. When she met with staff members of the council, they told her to file a complaint and that they would “stand behind her.” But after filing her complaint, she said she was told, “It has nothing to do with us. We are not a law office.”
In the video she gave to Gunaz TV, Navidpur asked international organizations to help ensure her safety. Gunaz TV, based in Chicago, is a channel transmitting in the Azerbaijani language.
In a posting on Telegram, Akbar Alami, a former deputy, questioned the assertion that her death was a suicide, especially considering the victim’s determined pursuit of her rights over the last four years.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said January 8 that documents left by Navidpur showed that several other women had told her they had been raped by Khodadadi, but did not file complaints out of fear for their lives.
Khodadadi has served five four-year terms in the Majlis, making him one of the most senior members of that body, but he has been a controversial figure due to multiple sexual-abuse allegations.
He is a veteran of the Pasdaran and also served in the Intelligence Ministry—strong credentials for a candidate to pass muster with the Guardian Council, which must vet all candidates before they can run for the Majlis.
Roughly midway in his two decades as a deputy, he was summoned by a Tehran court and arrested on charges of “moral corruption” and illegal sexual relations. Nothing further is known about that case, which just sank out of sight.
In 2012, however, the Guardian Council did not approve his candidacy, and for one term he was out of the Majlis.
After President Rohani was elected in 2013, Khodadadi became an adviser to Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif. Khodadadi reportedly has a doctorate in international relations.
In 2016, he was again elected to the Majlis.
