12 Iranian Jews who at different times intended to illegally leave the country from the Iran-Pakistan border, never reached the other side of the borders and after almost 20 years, it is still said that there is no information about the fate of these individuals. Despite the remarkable silence, the pursuit of the status of these missing persons has progressed to the point of filing a complaint against the then President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, by the lawyer of these individuals in the courts of the United States of America.

Bijan Khalili, one of the publishers of books in Los Angeles, America, who manages “Book Company” and himself was arrested shortly after the February 1979 revolution and spent some time in Qasr prison in Tehran, is one of the knowledgeable people in this field. In addition to having connections with many of their families, he has been one of the few individuals who, for a long time, has been informing about the situation of these individuals.

He believes that in a closed country like Iran, where they do not allow information to be disseminated in a normal manner and people to become aware, it is natural that they do not allow any documents in this regard to be broadcast and do their best to prevent it.

In order to investigate the issue of these missing individuals, we went to Mr. Khalili and asked him to provide us with more information in this regard.

Mr. Khalili, as the first question, please kindly explain what is the subject of the disappearance of 12 Iranian Jews and what period it is related to?

The subject of these individuals started from 72-73 (as far as I can remember); a group of Iranian Jews who wanted to cross the border of Iran and Pakistan and reach the other side of the border and go outside of Iran, went missing and since then, there has been no news of them.

Was the journey of these individuals a collective and joint action or was it an individual and unorganized work?

No, it has been an individual and unorganized action as they have attempted to cross the border at different times and have practically disappeared at different times as well. Therefore, this shows that this incident was unorganized.

In your opinion, why do these individuals have to resort to such dangerous and illegal methods to leave their country?

Unfortunately, there was an unwritten law in Iran during that time (1980s and 1990s) that did not allow Jews to leave the country. They had to provide a guarantor and put their house as collateral in order to obtain permission to leave Iran. Some of them, such as Mr. Shahin Nikkhoo who was also serving in the military, were not granted permission to leave the country. As a result, they would decide to illegally cross the border and if caught, they would face consequences such as 6 months in prison and possibly a longer military service.

It is evident that the reasons for these individuals leaving their homeland are due to existing pressures and continuous violation of their rights, as part of the Iranian Jewish community. However, on what basis do you hold the Iranian government responsible or accuse them of playing a role in their disappearance? Are there any documents regarding this matter?

In any case, the Islamic Republic of Iran must be accountable for where these individuals are; meaning when they are questioned, they must say what has happened to them; whether they have been arrested or what has happened to them after their arrest. In reality, since the moment when the question was raised by the families of the victims, activists, or human rights organizations at the international level, no answer has been given in this regard. However, some of the families live in Israel and therefore have been forced to hire lawyers to pursue this issue, and their lawyers have filed complaints against Mr. Khatami during his presidency, for this matter, in American courts. When Mr. Khatami traveled to America, the court even summoned him, but he immediately left America within 24 hours and never set foot on American soil again.

Mr. Khalili; In your opinion, what possible benefit could there be for the Iranian government in regards to the disappearance of these individuals?

The answer to this question is $1 million! We don’t know either and in fact, it would have been great if we did. There is no answer and no one takes any responsibility, in reality we are all confused about this issue; the only thing that is always said is not to bring it up and not to do such and such because it will probably bring an answer. But in the past 20 years, since the first people disappeared until now, no answer has been given in this regard.

During this time, has there been any indication of the survival of these individuals or anything that could determine what has ultimately happened to them?

Specifically, the only ones who truly pursued and chased this issue were the families of the victims, who of course have different and numerous definitions. Some of these families were forced to stay in Iran during these years in order to have better follow-up. These families have had multiple trips to Zahedan, the border, Iran, and Pakistan, and one of their feet is also in Tehran and prisons to search for their loved ones and relatives.

Different accounts also state that, for example, a certain soldier said that we saw them, but when they went to find the soldier, he was no longer there; he either disappeared, deserted, or his service was completed, it is not clear. In other words, the situation is confusing. However, the only ones who can provide answers to this situation are the officials of the Iranian government; because there is evidence, such as prison documents, that no one has access to. The representative of the United Nations Human Rights Organization also does not have access to the prison files due to not being allowed to enter Iran, and we do not know if these victims were taken to official prisons of the Islamic Republic, or if they were in unofficial and private prisons, or if they were in the prisons of the Ministry of Intelligence. The only thing that is certain is that they did not leave Iran’s borders, because their families and some Jewish organizations in Pakistan searched for them and found no trace of them.

According to your statements, so far the Iranian government and other relevant organizations have not taken a clear position towards these individuals…

No, they do not show any practical reaction at all and it is not clear what specific policy exists in this regard.

Have human rights organizations – both inside and outside – taken positive steps to encourage or compel the Iranian government to clarify the issue of the disappearance of these individuals?

Unfortunately, no, at least I haven’t seen anything in this regard so far. We even contacted Mr. Shahid, the representative of the United Nations Human Rights Organization, and provided him with all the information and documents. They also interviewed two of the families of the victims who are in Los Angeles, and I was one of the people who prepared the groundwork for this and it happened in my own office, but in Mr. Shahid’s report, this issue was not seen.

See, our problem is that we have a police state like Nazi Germany. Imagine if the Nazis hadn’t been defeated by the Allies and their documents and archives weren’t seized, it would have been impossible to find evidence of the killing of Jews, Gypsies, and others. The opening of Germany’s Gestapo and SS and the discovery of extermination camps like Auschwitz and the liberation of those who remained there, exposed these killings. In a closed country like Iran, where they don’t allow information to be disseminated freely and people to become aware, it’s natural that they won’t let any documents in this regard be distributed and will do everything in their power to prevent it.

So having many documents by ordinary people seems unlikely, but besides the fact that these documents exist within the Islamic Republic, the intelligence organizations of major countries in the world also have access to this information; for example, we cannot claim that the massacre of 1367 in the prisons of the Islamic Republic has been hidden from the eyes of the intelligence organizations of America and Europe. Basically, it is impossible that, within a period of about 3 months, 5-6 thousand young Iranians or those who had a political background were executed and they did not give them. In fact, Western intelligence organizations do not make these documents available to the public in a timely manner, as they may want to use them for their own intelligence purposes, and they keep them for themselves and do not care about human rights.

This is not the Islamic Republic that I am talking about here, because the Islamic Republic is not committed to any principles or framework that we want to adhere to; we also expect human rights groups and civil society to expose internationally, and to put pressure on the government using their existing capacities, but we expect from Western countries, especially those who define their government within a democratic framework, to share any information they have about this with the people.

As a final question, why do you think that despite the numerous reports being published about various human rights issues and some of them gaining public attention, there has not been any specific news or report about the situation of these 12 individuals? As far as I know, it seems that your efforts in this field have only resulted in breaking the absolute silence…

The reality is that now the issue of the Islamic Republic must be so big that it receives attention and becomes a headline, otherwise it is not important for major news organizations in the world. For example, if six people are executed in a day, it is not enough and no one pays attention, but it must be at least 60 people to receive attention. This means that the horror of these issues has become commonplace and now the issue of executions in Iran has become normal, as well as the issue of arresting a group of people. For example, suppose before the detention of some minorities was a headline in Western media, but after repeated detentions and nothing happening, the appeal is lost – of course, this is how it is in Western systems and news must be appealing – and this is while this news exists, whether it becomes a headline or not…

Even if we look at the recent report by Mr. Shahid, there is no mention of any issues regarding Jews in Iran. One of our main problems is self-censorship. When the issue of Jews is brought up, people think it is related to Israel and Zionism, which leads to Mr. Shahid himself hesitating to write or mention the name of Jews in general. However, in the past 2-3 years, we have had two cases regarding Jews, one of which was very important and involved the killing of a Jewish woman in Joubareh, Isfahan. In this case, there was a mosque near the house of the Jews, and they wanted to expand it by taking over the land of their house. However, since this Jewish family did not want to sell their house, one of the Jewish women was attacked and killed by a group of hooligans – it is not clear if they were actually hooligans or not. We do not

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