IranWire Exclusive: Chief Bodyguard One of 80 Interrogated on Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Killing

A former MP has told IranWire that more than 80 bodyguards, members of the Ansar al-Mahdi Security Corps, and their relatives, family members and colleagues have been detained and interrogated since the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last winter. Hamed Asghari, the head of Fakhrizadeh's security detail, was temporarily suspended and not spared from questioning.

Before his assassination outside Tehran on November 27, 2020, Fakhrizadeh was officially head of the Ministry of Defence’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, anecdotally the mastermind of Iran’s nuclear program. More than a year on, his murder remains unsolved.

In an interview with Ensaf News on December 9, Mohsen Salehikhah, a documentary filmmaker and author of Hamed Asghari's biography, expressed concerns for Asghari’s wellbeing that gave rise to the suspicion Fakhrizadeh’s own security team were in the judicial crosshairs.

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"I know that Hamed Asghari has not been at work for a year. But I don’t know why. For me, as someone who knows him intimately, what he did was heroic. At the very least, what he showed was that if the Israelis were going through different channels to achieve their goal, there were people who still did the right thing. He may have a wife and two young sons, but when it comes to shielding and defending someone, he does so. I would like those in charge to allow me to interview Hamed Asghari..."

So said Mohsen Salehikhah, a filmmaker and biographer for Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s ex-security chief, in a dialogue published by Ensaf News on December 9, 2021. He spoke at length about his own, long acquaintance with Asghari and what has become of it now: Outside of his own, long acquaintance with Asghari, much of what he talked about was speculative: "Hamed is less talkative these days. The last time I saw him was around Muharram [August 9 to September 7] this year. He didn’t look like the hero of that full-blown war Fakhrizadeh's son talked about. He had grown slim. He looked like a pensioner.

“He didn’t say more than a few sentences, and I didn’t ask for any more. He said: 'I did my job. The last thing I could do was become a shield for the bullets. That was it. We were prepared for all kinds of threats and scenarios, but something like this had never happened before.'"

Fakhrizadeh was travelling on the Firoozkooh Road north of Tehran when he was shot several times and died from his injuries on November 27, 2020. The incident was the subject of several contradictory accounts by officials of the Islamic Republic, after which it finally announced that a remote-controlled weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has described Fakhrizadeh as the director of Iran's Amad Project, which focused on enhancing Iran’s nuclear military capabilities.

In the immediate aftermath IranWire reported that former colleagues, bodyguards, current and retired government officials, and even relatives of the murdered scientist were being taken for interrogations en masse. Twelve months later, IranWire now understands these investigations are still ongoing. The head of Fakhrizadeh’s personal security detail appears to still be one of the subjects.

Who is Hamed Asghari?

Hamed Asghari is well-known in the Islamic Republic. According to records unearthed by media close to the IRGC, he was previouisly a member of the national judo team for seven years, though ex-champion Sardar Pashaei later denied this, clarifying: "Hamed Asghari is a judoka. He has never been a member of the national judo team, but has regularly attended the national team camps as part of the IRGC project to train security athletes."

In his bodyguarding career, Asghari was previously assigned to such personalities as Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2010, and Eshagh Jahangiri, the first vice president for both of Hassan Rouhani’s terms in office. He was at the helm of Fakhrizadeh’s security team during that same eight-year period. According to Iranian state media, he had also intermittently been selected to protect foreign politicians visiting Iran, overseeing security for then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tehran in summer 2019.

Salehikhah had further light to shed on Asghari’s past during his interview last week: “Last year, a reporter searched online and found Hamed's photos in Beirut, in Baghdad, in Najaf, and many other places. I heard from some of the guys who fought in Syria that Hamed was their tactical trainer.”

Some accounts of the assassination last November state that between one and three bullets passed through Asghari’s body while he was shielding Fakhrizadeh, killing his principal. The accuracy of these claims remains unknown while Asghari has made no public comment. The Iranian Judo Federation even announced at first that he had been killed; later, he was said to be receiving hospital treatment.

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Contradictory narratives about how Fakhrizadeh was killed

"Asghari is the gold standard for bodyguards, and an internationally known figure," Javad Mogoei, another filmmaker close to the Revolutionary Guards, wrote on Instagram after Fakhrizadeh's killing. “But this was 12 people, with an explosive device, [against] four bodyguards! Fakhrizadeh was named in all the international reports and documents. Recently, he was also mentioned by the Zionists [Israelis] in interviews and conferences. What can the intelligence system do? What can the bodyguard do on the scene?"

Although much of what Mogoei wrote, including the alleged 12 assailants and four bodyguards, was later denied, it was evident that Iranian security agencies and those close to them were reeling from the hit – and naturally in a frenzy to establish the source of the leak.

 Later Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s now-foreign minister and another figure close to the IRGC, told Al-Alam TV: “Some of the perpetrators of this assassination have been identified and even arrested by our security services. They will be dealt with severely. Information about this assassination will not be published for now due to the sensitivity of the case, and will be announced in due course."

Due course is now more than a year. Officials of the Islamic Republic no longer say anything about the case unprompted. But the search continues.

Still Looking for an Infiltrator

"Fakhrizadeh has been the target of intelligence-gathering for years," former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen told Israel's Channel 12 a few months after the incident. "Mossad has been closely monitoring Mr Fakhrizadeh for years, including close surveillance.”

There was no reason for the claim to appear far-fetched. On February 8 this year, Mahmoud Alavi, the then-Minister of Intelligence, said: "Two months before the killing, the Ministry of Intelligence announced that the enemy was gathering information in the area, and five days before, it had said the enemy was planning to assassinate Fakhrizadeh. The only thing the Ministry of Intelligence did not know was the time."

Long before, just a few days after Fakhrizadeh was killed, the former MP and now mayor of Tehran Alireza Zakani met with his family. "Fakhrizadeh's assassination is a prelude to our exposing infiltration in the country," he said. Mohammad Sadegh Koushki, a political activist close to the IRGC, also emphasized the role of “infiltrators”: "We must understand why Israel has so much influence and mastery over the files and details of [Iranian] nuclear scientists and elites, and can so easily carry out these assassinations."

Following Mohsen Salehikhah’s interview, an ex-MP spoke to IranWire about the scale of the investigation to date. More than 80 people have been interrogated and several arrested, they said. "The people under investigation are the Fakhrizadeh family and Fakhrizadeh’s colleagues, bodyguards and their families, members of the Ansar al-Mahdi Security Corps, two MPs and several officials from the Ministry of Defense. But no one is currently in custody in this case. Hamed Asghari is among those who have been repeatedly interrogated, and was temporarily suspended from service. Of course, this has caused controversy among the officials and security institutions in the Islamic Republic."

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