Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh-basti is heading the Iranian regime delegation to the meeting, which takes place in Geneva from February 25 to March 22.
But in April 1990, Akhondzadeh-basti – now Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs – was part of a terrorist hit squad that gunned down Professor Rajavi in broad daylight as he drove to his home in the Swiss village of Coppet.
Professor Rajavi was Iran’s first Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. But soon after his appointment, he resigned in protest at the ‘repressive policies and terrorist activities’ of the ruling clerics in Iran”.
He remained in Geneva to campaign against the mass executions, arbitrary arrests, and torture being carried out in his homeland, also becoming a representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and a university lecturer in the Swiss city.
But his activities prompted Khomeini to order his death and in 1986 he sent 12 killers to terrorist and assassination training schools in Lavizan and Abyek.
It was not until three years later that plans were stepped up to murder Professor Rajavi – who had been named as a ‘martyr of human rights’.
At a meeting attended by Iranian intelligence chiefs, Qods force commanders and Akhondzadeh-basti, three possible ways to kill Professor Rajavi were discussed.
The first was to kill Rajavi along with all his family members at his home.
The second was to plant a bomb in his car, connected to either the brakes or ignition, that would detonate once the speed reached 40kmh.
And the third plan was to assassinate him as he was commuting to or from home.
A budget for the operation was then approved at a meeting with new Iranian regime’s president Rafsanjani, Ali Khamenei, mullah Mohammad Hejazi, head of the special affairs committee, Falahian, the intelligence minister, foreign affairs minister Velayati, former intelligence minister Reyshari, and then IRGC chief Mohsen Rezaei.
On 30 August 1989, a first team headed by Akhondzadeh-basti and fellow henchman Saeed Hemati went to Geneva with diplomatic passports to review the plan. Based on their evaluation, the second plan for a car bomb was ruled out and they began working on only the first and third plans.
On 18 October 1989, a hit squad entered Geneva again and tried carry out the first plan of massacring Rajavi’s whole family, but because Kazem was away on a trip, the plot was aborted.
On 31 January 1990, the second squad arrived in Geneva, but due to internal squabbling between the terrorists, that plan too was cancelled.
Then on 10 April 1990, six terrorists by flew to Geneva on Iran air. Mohammad-Ali Hadi Najaf Abadi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates also went to Geneva eight days later using diplomatic passport number 006646 and stayed in room 625 of the Intercontinental Hotel.
Akhondzadeh-basti also flew to Geneva by Iran Air on 18 April, with air ticket number 096 4261 831174 and diplomatic passport number 006588, and stayed at the same hotel.
The two men oversaw the operation to kill 56-year-old Professor Rajavi, who was shot in his car as he drove home at 11.50am on 24 April, 1990. Akhondzadeh-basti, Abadi and a number of other known terrorists returned to Tehran on an Iran Air Boeing 737 plane the same evening.
Professor was the elder brother of Iranian opposition leader Massoud Rajavi. He worked tirelessly to defend human rights in Iran and also held six doctorate degrees in the fields of law, political science, and sociology from the universities of Paris and Geneva.
After a lengthy investigation, Swiss justice and police officials and chief magistrate Roland Chatelain found that 13 Iranian agents had used ‘service passports’ to enter Switzerland to kill Professor Rajavi and confirmed the role of Iranian regime under Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in his killing.