Was “Economic Guerrilla” Ali Dadman Murdered?

When Ali Dadman died on June 27, Iranian media were quick to report that he had been the victim of a bio-terrorist attack. Dadman, the son of a minister who worked under President Mohammad Khatami, was known for regularly bypassing sanctions, with one official labeling him an “economic guerrilla.” He was alleged to have connections with companies affiliated with the Basij paramilitary group, and also to have played a role in Iran’s nuclear program. But was it enough for someone to want to kill him? 

Ali Dadman’s death was officially attributed to cancer. One of his friends told the media he suffered from a rare kind of intestinal cancer that “advanced with incredible speed.” The media, however, suspected that Dadman had been targeted on one of his trips abroad.  

Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on July 1 that claims that he had been murdered were pure media speculation, and that there was no hard evidence that Dadman had died from exposure to toxins or dangerous biological substances. 

But who would want to kill Dadman, and why? Fars News Agency’s managing editor Nezamoddin Mousavi thinks the alleged attack is directly linked to Dadman’s use of “know-how and smarts” about bypassing US-imposed sanctions against Iran. Quoting Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, a member of Iran’s Expediency Council — a body that advises the supreme leader —Mousavi wrote that Ali Dadman was an “economic guerrilla.”  Dadman had also come under fire during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, and the former president’s chief of staff reportedly removed him from his job as a government official. 

On June 30, Ali Shamkhani stated that the secretariat for the Supreme National Security Council had set up a special committee to look into that matter. He also said a security agency had previously concluded that Dadman’s death was suspicious. 

The admiral did not clarify whether the security agency had been investigating Dadman’s death in particular when it reached its conclusions, or whether it had been conducting a more general investigation into bio-terrorism.

Ali Dadman was the son of Rahman Dadman, the minister of roads and transportation under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami. Rahman Dadman died in May 2001 after a plane he was traveling in mysteriously crashed. 

Although conservative media have not published much about Dadman’s life or business dealings, social networking sites and apps have been quick to fill the gap. Ali Saberi Tolaie wrote on Google+ that Dadman was a member of the Revolutionary Guards’ expeditionary Quds Force and had participated in Syrian operations. Others claimed that he had been active in Iran’s nuclear program. Fars News Agency’s managing editor does not directly refer to such a role but compares him to the “nuclear martyrs” —  the Iranian nuclear scientists who were assassinated in 2010-11. Iran accused Israel’s secret service, Mossad, of arranging the assassinations.

For a short period in 2011, Ali Dadman served as a government official and was responsible for expanding Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, liaising and negotiating with Malaysian companies as part of this process. But according to the website Sarat News, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff, took against him and managed to have him removed from his job. 

Prior to his time as an official, Dadman was deputy president of Techno-Tar Corp., a manufacturer of gas tanks and pumps. Some media agencies reported that he also worked with Mehr Investment Corp., a company affiliated with the paramilitary Basij organization. His cooperation with the Basij goes back to 2010 when he was a member of board of directors of Tidewater, a marine transportation company of which Basij organization is a major shareholder.

Injections by Americans?

Dadman is said to have made money by bypassing sanctions, but for a relatively short time. What exactly happened during that time? Quite a lot has been published on the subject, but mainly on social networks and via unverifiable sources. One report said he was arrested during a trip to Malaysia and was at the disposal of United States security agents for a month — and that prior to his release, agents gave him an unspecified injection. Another person posted on social media that Dadman was a victim of a bio-terror attack in Syria. At the same time, another person commented that  he had gone to Syria for development work but returned to Iran because of his illness. One Iranian TV news program reported briefly that he had traveled to Syria without giving any details.

When it comes to the details of Dadiman’s condition, details are scarce and unconfirmed. And yet another online commentator said Ali Dadman had been hospitalized in Russia for a period of time to treat his illness. In Iran he was hospitalized at Tehran’s Khatam-Ol-Anbia Hospital, a hospital affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards. President Rouhani’s brother Hossein Fereydoon and a number of senior government officials visited him during his hospital stay in.

There are no detailed news reports about when Dadman was diagnosed with cancer. An August 2014 photograph shows him with Ayatollah Khamenei, looking healthy. According to Tehran’s mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who visited Ali Dadman in the hospital in June, he had shown no symptoms of ill health until a few months ago. Some posts on social networks say that he had recovered in 2014 after being treated in Russia, but his cancer had returned after a year.

At Dadman’s memorial service, Ayatollah Ruhollah Gharahi, the director of Imam Mehdi Seminary, gave credence to some of the rumors about Dadman’s death. He referred to him as a martyr and corroborated reports that the US had been involved in his death. “When he was detained by the Americans he received several injections, after which he became ill,” he said.

So what happened to Ali Dadman? No one can confirm the rumors, but they keep building, and stories keep unfolding. Did he die of cancer? Or was he murdered? Was he the victim of bio-terrorism? What did sanctions have to do with it? The details are not clear. But what is clear is that a new story of intrigue — involving Iranian politics, business and corruption — has gripped Iranian social media, and big sections of the Iranian public in general.