Casualties of the Iranian revolution
[1] The number of protesters and political prisoners killed after the fall of the Shah by the new Islamic Republic as it consolidated power is estimated by human rights groups to be several thousand.
"[8] In reference to the 60,000 figure, the military historian Spencer C. Tucker notes that "Khomeini's regime grossly overstated the revolution's death toll for propaganda purposes".
[1] Emadeddin Baghi, while a researcher at the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs (Bonyad Shahid) -- established after the revolution to compensate the survivors of fallen revolutionaries -- found a smaller number were killed.
[10] According to Kurzman, "the shah frequently told foreign emissaries that he was unwilling to massacre his subjects in order to save his throne".
Public opinion at the time as reflected in "a small survey in Tehran the following week" found that "more people believed the opposition's casualty figures than the government's".
[13] In contrast, a list recently produced by the Center for Documents on the Islamic Revolution, a "pro-revolutionary institute", found five people died in the protest.
[28] After forcing the resignation of the presiding judges in an attempt to hamper the investigation, the new government finally executed Hossein Takb'alizadeh for "setting the fire on the Shah's orders," despite his insistence that he did it on his own accord as an ultimate sacrifice for the revolutionary cause.
[23][28] The clash between government and protestors that is said to have enraged anti-Shah forces and eliminated "any hope for compromise," occurred on 8 September 1978 (Shahrivar 17) in Tehran.
The post-revolutionary Martyr Foundation could identify only 79 dead, while the coroner's office counted 82 and Tehran's main cemetery, Beheshte-e Zahra, registered only 40.
"[30] Following the overthrow of the Shah's government on 11 February 1979 (22 Bahman 1357), members of the old regime, including senior generals, were executed by the revolutionary leadership.
[33] Two days later on 9 April ten senior officials of the Shah, including two generals and a cabinet member, were executed in Tehran.
[39] In August 1979, the courts began to try the members of the ethnic minorities in the country who participated in demonstrations against the new Islamic government , and the trials resulted in massive death sentences.
A decade later, another former Prime Minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, was assassinated in Paris, one of at least 63 Iranians abroad killed or wounded since the Shah was overthrown,[42] although these attacks are thought to have stopped after the early 1990s.
[44] After president Abulhassan Banisadr was impeached on 20 June 1981 (30 Khordad 1360), a concerted effort was made to find and prosecute the erstwhile supporters turned opposition, primarily leftists.
A list compiled the following year by the Mojahedin-e Khalq cited 7,746 persons who had lost their lives through executions, in street battles, or under torture in the short period from June 1981 to September 1983.
