[4] The event started when four individuals, who were militants motivated by Islamic extremism,[2] doused the building with airplane fuel before setting it alight.

Initially, the revolutionaries falsely alleged that SAVAK intelligence agents were in pursuit of individuals who ran into the theatre and used it as an opportunity to hide in a large crowd.

Sobhe Emruz wrote, "Don't make us disclose who were really behind the Cinema Rex fire," causing the newspaper to be shut down shortly afterward.

[1] According to the historian Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet: "Though subsequent scholarship has pointed the finger at supporters of the revolution for the arson, the Islamic Republic disregards these findings and holds the shah's secret police, SAVAK, responsible for the crime".

[3] According to the military historian Spencer C. Tucker: "In Abadan, four Islamic militants bar the door of the Cinema Rex movie theater and then set the building on fire, killing 422 people inside.

[2] According to the sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar: "The burning of the Cinema Rex in Abadan on August 19, 1978, where around 400 people were killed, was perpetrated by the Shah's Savak secret service, according to street protesters.

Although in retrospect the dastardly act has all the hallmarks of Islamic terrorism, and although in future years evidence emerged showing the culpability of the clergy, the people at the time blamed the government".

[26] According to the historian Michael Axworthy: "Government and opposition both accused each other, but events, trials and investigations in later years indicate that a radical Islamic group with connections to ulema figures was responsible".

Many elements of the revolutionary bloc blamed Mohammad Reza Shah, the now deposed monarch of Iran, and SAVAK, the country's domestic security and intelligence service.

It was also believed that the Shah targeted Cinema Rex to kill political dissidents who had gathered to watch the anti-government film playing there.

[28][29] While initial rumors blamed Shah and SAVAK for the fire, after the revolution, more evidence suggested the 4-person arson team was indirectly in touch with Shia clerics.

"[33][32] In an interview with Hossein Dehbashi, Mohsen Safaei Farahani claimed that the person responsible for the fire "..became a member of Parliament after Islamic Revolution".

So in August 1978, four Shiite revolutionaries locked the doors of the Cinema Rex in the Iranian city of Abadan and set the theater on fire".

[35] Iraj Mesdaghi wrote that at the beginning of Islamic Republic formation, Mousavi Tabrizi was carefully selected as the judge for the Cinema Rex case.

[36] According to the Washington-based group Human Rights & Democracy for Iran, the families of the victims led the charge for further investigation of the case, even resorting to a long sit-in protest from April to August 1980.

The new Iranian government arrested Captain Monir Taheri, who was accused by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Rudsar of having received guerrilla training in the United States.

[37] Lasting from 25 August to 4 September 1980, the Revolutionary Tribunal oversaw 17 court sessions that involved the trial of 26 individuals, including the only survivor of the four-man arson team, Hossein Takbalizadeh, who stated in his defense that he was an unemployed drug addict.