Darioush Rezaeinejad
| Darioush Rezaeinejad | |
|---|---|
| File:Portrait of Darioush Rezaeinejad.jpg | |
| Born | داریوش رضایینژاد c. 1976 Abdanan, Iran |
| Died | 23 July 2011 Tehran, Iran |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Nationality | Iranian |
| Education | Electronics |
| Alma mater | K.N.Toosi University of Technology |
| Occupation | Student |
| Spouse(s) | Shohreh Pirani |
| Children | Armita (daughter) |
Darioush Rezaeinejad (Persian: داریوش رضایینژاد; c. 1976 (Abdanan) – 23 July 2011(Tehran); also Dariush Rezaei-Nejad) was an Iranian engineering student who was assassinated in east Tehran by gunmen in July 2011.
Contents
Assassination
Rezaeinejad was killed by motorcycle borne gunmen in July 2011 outside the front gate of the family home, while he was driving home with his wife (Shohreh Pirani) after picking up their daughter, Armita, from kindergarten.[1] His wife was also wounded in the attack.[2]
Initial reports, including from the semi-official ISNA agency, identified the victim as Darioush Rezaei, a 46-year-old physicist whose area of expertise is neutron transport and is known to be involved in Iran's nuclear program.[3][4]
However, news agencies later confirmed the victim was not the nuclear physicist, but Darioush Rezaeinejad, a postgraduate electrical engineering student at Tehran's K.N.Toosi University of Technology, who was waiting to defend his thesis.[5][6] and working at a national security research facility.[1]
When news of the assassination broke, the speaker of Iran's parliament Ali Larijani suggested the United States and Israel had killed Rezaeinejad. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland stated, "We were not involved. Our sympathies are obviously with the family of the victim."[7] Rezaeinejad is the fourth scientist "allegedly associated" with Iran's nuclear program to have been killed by bomb, gunshot or poisoning since 2007.[8]
Supposal of relation to the nuclear program
Iranian semi-official press first related Rezaeinejad's assassination to the nuclear program of Iran but Iran's intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, and other officials denied any links between Rezaeinejad and the nuclear program. Later when Ali Larijani, blamed the US and Israel, Moslehi said it was too early to tell.[9]
Analyst Afshon Ostovar writes, "I suspect, just based on what's known in the Iranian media reporting, that Rezaeinejad was assassinated because of his relationship to Iran's nuclear programme".[9]
According to Iran's Fars news, assassins might had confused Darioush Rezaeinejad with Dariush Rezaei Ochbelagh, specialist in nuclear reactors and an assistant professor at Amirkabir University.[10]
On the other hand, Rezaeinejad and co-author Mojtaba Dadashnejad had been doing research on high-voltage switches, that are used both in detonators for nuclear weapons and missiles and in many nonmilitary applications.[10][11]
Claim of Mossad responsibility
On August 2, 2011, German news website Spiegel Online published an article named "Mossad Behind Tehran Assassinations, Says Source", claiming receiving information from "an Israeli intelligence source", linking Israeli Mossad to the assassination of Darioush Rezaeinejad, described as Iranian nuclear scientist.[12]
See also
References and notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Iran: Scientist shot dead in Tehran". (BBC). 23 July 2011.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099003,00.html
- ↑ "Iran denies assassinated academic worked on nuclear projects" | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | guardian.co.uk| 25 July 2011.
- ↑ "Photo of the Day". (funeral) | news.yahoo.com.
- ↑ "US denies killing scientist, presses Iran" (AFP). 25 July 2011.
- ↑ "Who Is Killing Iran's Nuclear Scientists?" | By MATTHEW COLE and MARK SCHONE | July 26, 2011.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Ulrike Putz, "Mossad Behind Tehran Assassinations, Says Source", Spiegel Online, August 2, 2011.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Darioush Rezaeinejad. |
- Iranian Nuclear Physicist Killed in Tehran; Mossad Blamed (International Business Times, 23 July 2011)
- (German) Iran: USA und Israel hinter Tod eines Wissenschaftlers (Reuters, 24 July 2011); with picture
- (French) Un physicien nucléaire iranien tué par balle à Téhéran (AFP, 24 July 2011)
- Iran says no suspect of student terror act arrested (ISNA, 26 July 2011)
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Articles containing Persian-language text
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- Articles with German-language external links
- Articles with French-language external links
- Date of birth unknown
- 2011 deaths
- Murdered scientists
- Assassinated Iranian people
- Iranian murder victims
- Iranian nuclear physicists
- Iranian academics
- Nuclear program of Iran
- Year of birth uncertain
