Nationality Iranian Name Ali Tabatabaei Spouse(s) Elizabeth Lynne Gilham | Religion Islam | |
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Born 4 September 1930 Hamedan Died July 22, 1980, Bethesda, Maryland, United States | ||
Occupation Diplomat and Architect | ||
Ali Akbar Tabatabaei pronunciation (4 September 1930 – 22 July 1980) was an Iranian exile and former press attache to the Iranian embassy in the United States who became president of the Iran Freedom Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland after the Iranian Revolution. He was killed at his front door by a Muslim convert associated with an Iranian militant group in the last successful Iranian assassination plot on US soil.
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Early life
Tabatabei was born in Hamedan on 4 September 1930.
Career
Tabatabaei served as press attaché in Iran's embassy in the United States during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Death
A critic of Ruhollah Khomeini, Tabatabaei was shot in his Bethesda, Maryland home by Dawud Salahuddin, an American Muslim convert on 22 July 1980. Salahuddin disguised himself as a postman with a borrowed mail truck.
Salahuddin stated he was paid $5000 by Iranians to kill Tabatabaei. He is currently on the FBI fugitives list. He escaped to Iran via Paris and Geneva, reaching Tehran on 31 July 1980. In a 1996 interview with ABC's 20/20, Salahuddin also confessed to killing Tabatabaei. He further stated that he thought the killing was "an act of war". In 2009, it was discovered that Salahuddin had been using a new name, Hassan Abdulrahman, and that he had been running the website of Press TV.