Mostafa Sabounchi, the father of Ebrahim and Aziz Sabounchi, was a respected and a hard working businessman.He was popular and lovable among the people of Mahabad. He was always remembered as a trustworthy and patriotic person. He and his spouse Khadijeh Khanum got two sons (Ibrahim and Aziz) and seven daughters in their life. Ibrahim and Aziz, like the other children of their family, spent their childhood in the loving arms of their parents and loving family.
Aziz was born on 10/11/1339 Iranian Calendar (30/01/1961) in the city of Mahabad. After completing elementary and middle school in his hometown, he went to Tabriz, where he finished high school and received a diploma. This period coincided with the revolution of the Iranian people against the Pahlavi Regime, so he could not enter the university to continue his education. During this turbulent time, he returned to his hometown of Mahabad to spend this period with his family.
Ebrahim was also born in Mahabad on 1/8/1343 (23/10/1964) and studied until the end of middle school. He started working in his father’s business. Aziz joined them after returning to Mahabad and he started working in the family business too. These two young men had a gentle and calm spirit. Helping the family, people around them and neighbors were part of their daily life. This lovely behavior and high character of the two young men remained in the memory of their friends and those around them. Political activity, revolutionary fervor and struggle against the clerical regime of Iran were hot in Kurdistan, Mahabad and all of Iran during those years. These two brothers continued to work alongside their father and did not join any group, organization or political flow of that time.
Three innocent young men (1) who were their friends were arrested. They were forced to make a false confession under brutal torture of mercenaries and barbaric agents of the clerical government about these two innocent brothers. It should be noted that according to the prisoners who survived the regime’s executioners, the regime torturersforced the detainees to confess after committing brutal physical and mental torture. They asked the prisoners to reveal names they suspectedto be involved in anti-regime activities. The torturers promised to stop the torture under this condition. Some detainees did not endure this excruciating torture and mentioned names they knew but had never taken any action against the regime. Relying on the same false and forced confessions of tortured prisoners, the security service arrested many young innocent people and sentenced them to death without any reason or evidence, and sometimes during a two-minute trial. Many innocent victims of Kurdistan in the 1980ies and 1990ies were thus handed over to the death squads of the clerical regime.
After the forced confession of those three persons, the security forces and mercenaries of the regime raided the house of the Sabounchi’s on 11/8/1360 (02/11/1981) and arrested the two innocent brothers Aziz and Ebrahim. They were transferred to the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards (former youth house). Their family was allowed to visit them just once during the time the two brothers were in the regime’s dungeonand under torture. It was the only and the last meeting. During this brief visit, their family observed the traces of torture which had left its marks on their bodies and psyches.
One day, Mostafa (father of Aziz and Ebrahim) went to Mahabad prison with some clothes and food for his sons. He was told that his son Ibrahim was transferred to Orumyeh Prison along with 12 other prisoners. Mostafa went to Orumyeh looking for the traces of his son. Finally, he found the trace of his shot son in the morgue of a hospital in Orumyeh. He rushed there. He was told that the corpses of all the executed had been transferred to Mahabad Cemetery in a lorry. This tragedy was unfortunately true.The truck had transported the 13 corpses to the Mahabad Cemetery and unloaded them there.
Each affected family found the body of the loved one and buried it in the vaunted soil of Kurdistan. Khadijeh, the mother of these two brothers, was pregnant. She lost her health and the baby’s life, and her own life was in danger too. She was placed under constant medical supervision.
In this way, Ebrahim Sabounchi was executed on 25/09/1360 Iranian Calendar (16.12.1981) at the age of 17 along with 12 other persons. The Ettelaat newspaper reported on this mass execution on 1360/10/01 (22.12.1981) and listed the names as follows:
1 – Reza Nawakhah son of Rashid
2 – Abdolrahman Panahander son of Aziz
3 – Ebrahim Sabounchi son of Mostafa
4 – Ali Qaderzadeh son of Abdollah
5 – Khosrow Salehzadeh son of Hasan
6 – Yunes Mohajeri son of Fatah
7 – Hossein Mahmudi Aqdam son of Ebrahim
8 – Mostafa Esmailzadeh son of Wahab
9 – Mohammad Qasim Sawjaii son of Ali
10 – Karim Eslami son of Mohammad Amin
11 – Khalil Boluri son of Mostafa
12 – Mohammad Karimi son of Aziz
13 – Abubaker Rahimi son of Mohammad
Beloved Ebrahim left a will proving that he was executed on the day mentioned. This is his will:
In the name of the merciful God
I greet you warmly in the last hours of my life. I am aware of how you tried to raise me from my childhood on and you did everything for me. Unfortunately, I was unable to return all this goodness to you. I hope you will forgive me.
Beloved Father, please return the car to Mohammad Alizadeh. Beloved mother, I owe you 20,000 Toman. I can’t repay my debts. Be gracious and forgive me. Please don’t ask Esmail how much I owe him, just give him back what belongs to him.
My dear sister Dulbar, please forgive me, you have done a lot for me. I beg all relatives and friends to forgive me. You know that I am innocent and I also face death innocently. Four or five people are to blame, they testified against me to save their own lives.
I am grateful in spite of everything. That is God’s will and nobody should contradict him. My family, I hope you will forgive me. Ihave nothing more to say. May God bless you. I pray to God that our young brother will get out of jail.
God bless you
Ebrahim Sabounchi
25/09/1360
P.S: I ask you to give back all the letters and pictures of my girlfriend to her. Tell her to forgive me.
Please hand over this to my family and my father Mostafa Sabounchi
The deep wound after the loss of Ebrahim was still very fresh. People visited the family and gave their condolences. The next shocking news was announced by the state television network 12 days later on 07/10/1360 (28/12/1981). It was concerning the mass execution of young people in Mahabad. Aziz, the young brother of Ebrahim, was among them.
The names of these persons were as follows:
1 – Sharif Yusefi son of Ahmad
2 – Rahman Alidust son of Ali
3 – Jaafar Laleabasi son of Qader
4 – Rahman Swareh son of Kheder
5 – Mohammad Hoseinpour son of Aziz
6 – Ali Boluri son of Mostafa
7 – Khosrow Khawaryan son of Ebrahim
8 – Aziz Haj Abdollah son of Abdollah
9 – Kamal Moghami son of Mohammad
10 – Aziz Sabounchi son of Mostafa
11 – Ataollah Mowafaq i son of Mohammad Khalil
12 – Rasul Hasanzadeh son of Mohammad
13 – Hasan Bamdad son of Motaleb
14 – Tooraj Kaweh son of Ahmad
15 – Rezgar Khatami son of Yusef
This shocking news was a second tragedy. The family collapsed. The world had collapsed for the family too. A great wave of solidarity started through relatives and friends. The families of the second group of executed joined together. They all drove to Orumyeh in the hope of retrieving the bodies of their loved ones. The prison authorities and the Islamic Court told the families not to worry, because their loved ones were buried according to Islamic custom. The families did not give up. After seven months and four days, a commission was sent from Tehran to Orumyeh and exumed a mass grave near Orumyeh Lake. They found the bodies in plastic bags, they were fully clothed. The families took out the bodies and buried them in the Orumyeh Cemetery Baghe Rezwan in block 19.
Aziz Sabounchi wrote his will as follows:
To my lovely family
I, Aziz Sabounchi, was arrested on 11/8/1360. I was sentenced to death after a judicial process. I greet you, my lovely family, father, mother, my sisters Dulbar, Hajar, Shanaz, Amin, Soheyla, und Sorya, my lovely nephew and my brother.
My dears, I have cared for you all my life and have always thought of you. Now I leave you forever and give you into God’s hand. I wish you luck and hope that you will forgive me. I ask you to tell the neighbours, acquaintances and friends to forgive me. I pray to God to protect you from the misfortunes in life.
Aziz Sabounchi
A.S.
06/10/60
The memory of the unforgettable Ebrahim und Aziz Sabounchi shall never vanish.
Note:
(1) The names of these persons remain unpublished until a fair court process.
This biography was edited by Karim Kakasuri
