Majid Jamali Fashi: Kickboxing, Wikileaks, and Nuclear Assassinations in Iran

The assassination of Masoud Ali-Mohammadi was a story that made the rounds in 2010. The Iranian nuclear scientist worked with the government growing their nuclear ambitions and put the country towards a better future. He was killed by Majid Jamali Fashi with a remote bomb on January 12, 2010.¹

Ali-Mohammadi was on his way out the door. He was to give a speech at a local college this day and after his daily morning prayer with his wife, he went on his way to start his day. As he stepped out of his gate, fire and brimstone rained on Ali-Mohammadi, killing the scientist where he stood. It was an attack from Mossad operative Majid Jamali Fashi. He had been working with Israeli intelligence on a plot to assassinate Ali-Mohammadi to stop Iran from getting nuclear power claiming it was for weapons of mass destruction.

Soon thereafter, Fashi and eleven others would be arrested for suspected terrorism. Fashi would then be found guilty, confess live on a television broadcast and then be hung. Iran had found the traitor and dealt with the problem.

It came out that in 2007 that Fashi was approached by the Israeli consulate in 2007 while in competition in Istanbul.² He was put in contact with someone who set him up with training to prepare himself to plant the bomb on Mr. Ali-Mohammadi. Around September 2009, he would travel to Baku, Azerbaijan for another competition. In between 2007 and 2010, Fashi was in contact with Mossad, the Israeli special operations agency, for training and was paid $5,000 to $10,000 each visit. Training included riding a motorcycle, how and where to plant the bomb, and even included a perfect replica of where Masoud Ali-Mohammadi lived.²

Majid Jamali Fashi would then travel to Bangkok, Thailand and would meet with Mossad again. He was given an IQ test to make sure he was capable of handling more training and given a laptop with secret storage to send secrets back to Israel intelligence.²

He was then flown to Tel Aviv and given materials for the bomb and more motorcycle training. He was given an Israeli passport and the team threw him a farewell party the night before he was scheduled to leave.² Upon landing in Iran, Fashi would take a motorcycle with a bomb to the residence of Ali-Mohammadi and plant the bomb.

At around 8am local time, Ali-Mohammadi would leave the house and be murdered.

Except none of that seems to be true. Majid Jamali Fashi did not seem to really kill Masoud Ali-Mohammadi. He wasn’t involved in the bombing even. On today’s post, I’ve taken a dive into hundreds of news articles, finding inconsistencies in the story and while doing so, uncovered some dark details about the story. Brace yourself, this gets wild.

I also have linked all of my sources at the bottom. If one is not up anymore, I have copies saved to my computer to update with. You can find those links at the bottom and in the superscripts of the article. Also, reader be warned, there are some disturbing notes and images in this post that are not suitable for all readers.

Majid Jamali Fashi Was Not an Award Winning Kickboxer

The first hole I dug down was that of Majid Jamali Fashi and his kickboxing career. It was what turned me on to this story and was what I knew best. Combat sports fans are notorious record keepers. Tapology, Sherdog and BoxRec are all sites that keep meticulous records. As someone who works on Tapology and enters records for events, I did a search with admin tools for Fashi. Nothing turned up, not even a placeholder name. A subsequent search on Sherdog and BoxRec also turned up no record of Fashi having ever competed in any meaningful competition.

If you look on the pictures that went around of Fashi as a kickboxer, it’s watermarked by Terry Vorg. I reached out and found Vorg on social media. When asked about the pictures, he confirmed that he did indeed take him but he could not find nor recall anything ever about Fashi.

Does that mean that Majid Jamali Fashi never practiced kickboxing? Not at all. He could have very well been on some very local shows that weren’t on the radar of the record keeping sites. I believe Fashi was targeted because of his practice in kickboxing.

In December of 2010, Wikileaks would have a huge drop and among them would be cable 09BAKU697_a. That cable was haunting with details of how the Irani regime operated within it’s own country.

The leak told of a contact with an Iranian martial artist with the codename of “Hooshang.” It was a communication sent from Baku, Azerbaijan to the CIA, DIA, Iran Collective, Tokyo, Joint Chiefs of Staff, NSC, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Istanbul, US Central Command and the US European Command. In other words, this was high level information. You can click the cable above to read the entire thing. I will include notes from the cable itself.

Hooshang tells Baku Iran watcher that martial arts clubs are being pressured to cooperate with Iranian intelligence and Revolutionary Guard orgs to train “enforcers” political killers
Iranian government is “highly suspicious” of clubs due to possible vehicles for organization and combat training for future protesters and regime opponents.
Iran seeks control of clubs not for fear, but for private army for “special tasks” including martial arts training for Revolutionary Guard and Basij, assistance in protest repression, intimidation, crowd control, and political killings.
Hooshang says that using martial arts clubs provides plausible deniability for dirty undertakings and essentially trained assassins
Hooshang admits to knowing one martial arts master used by the Intelligence to murder at least six different individuals over the course of several months in Tabriz. Victims include intellectuals, young “pro-democracy activists.” Also said that martial arts master was killed and labeled a suicide.
Hooshang’s club was raided by government and restricted last Spring after he and club manager refused training to Basij and lend them facilities. Also refused to repress recent local protests.
Father of Hooshang summoned by authorities to convince son to cooperate
Hooshang left Tabriz mid-July 2009 and looked to go to Japan on visa

Majid Jamali Fashi was not named directly in the cable. Hooshang was followed by the (protect) tag and leads me to believe it’s not his real name. When this broke, Wikileaks and Julian Assange came under fire for the execution of Fashi. Assange fired back saying, “Media morons run with it, without fact checking. The absolute contempt for the readers and the truth shows why there must be urgent reform. Let us consider the Iranian smear. We have [the] wrong guy. This isn’t the guy in the cable. Wrong publication. Spiegel, not WL, selected the cable, but anyway, it was redacted. Wrong country. Israel isn’t even mentioned in the cable. In fact, there’s no connection whatsoever with the story other than……it mentions martial arts. And yet dozens of “press” outlets are running with it. Idiots!”

The Inconsistent Execution of Fashi

Iran doesn’t get cute when it comes to executions. The regime does it brutally and publicly to send a message to anyone else involved or questioning their power. On January 10th, 2011, Fashi had been identified as the bomber and was forced to confession television. His confession was very monotone and void of emotion, very odd for someone who was to be promptly executed shortly after.

The wife of Ali-Mohammadi, Mansoureh Karami, said she met with Fashi between this confession and the execution five months later. She said he was full of regret and remorse. “When I saw him, I saw him being so powerless and small. I said it’s a waste for my hands to expend all this energy [hammering nails],” said Karami. “I will never forgive him – there is no place for forgiveness. Because I don’t think he only affected my family, but the whole country,” says Karami, focusing her determined dark brown eyes. “All the people of the world – no matter their beliefs – they still respect their country, and he betrayed his country.”⁶

When the confession aired, Majid Jamali Fashi’s “Israeli passport was shown.” Get a load of the picture below.

There are some problems with this passport. One, Fashi’s face isn’t even looking directly at the camera. When taking a picture for a passport anywhere in the world, you have to look directly at the camera. One other thing, look up “Israeli passport” on Wikipedia and scroll down until you scratch your head.

I find it very conspicuous that every blanked out section is missing from Fashi’s “passport” and the dates are exactly the same. I mean, identical. Next, the passport states it was issued on November 17, 2003. Fashi was hung in 2011 at 24 years old. That would make Fashi 15 or 16 at the time the picture was taken. But, the picture in the passport aired on Iranian state TV shows an older Fashi. The passport was without a doubt fabricated.

In this picture, Majid Jamali Fashi is shown to be hung by the Iranian courts. It was the only picture released of the accused and convicted. But, it isn’t in line with how Iran does things with traitors and treason. It’s done public, bringing shame to the family and friends so that anyone thinking of doing it again will get cold feet. They are especially public with well known names and athletes. Iran releasing this picture and never showing the body raises some inconsistencies among their past actions.

Torture in Irani Prison

Torture is nothing new in Iran. The regime uses forced confessions to get the answer they want from anyone they want. Or they kill you trying. It’s very unforgiving. The exact torture session was actually recounted by one of the other 11 arrested initially in a BBC interview in 2019. Maziar Ebrahimi interviewed with the BBC and recounted horrible things done to him and the others arrested.

Ebrahimi confirms to BBC³ that he confessed to killing nuclear scientist with 12 others on a documentary called “The Terror Club.” Ebrahimi told BBC that he was tortured, not allowed to sleep and more. The only of the 12 that weren’t released was Fashi, who was killed before the “documentary.”

While talking to the BBC, Maziar told them that the torture was brutal. “These confessions were the most severe torture after a month to forty days. After ten blows to the sole of the foot, my leg was broke. During this time, I endured about 600 blows to the broken leg. I was shot in solitary confinement. The vertebrae in my back are bent. To escape torture, I was willing to accept any accusation the gentlemen made.”

Maizar was being forced to admit to other crimes under torture as well, saying that the interrogators led him through the confession telling him, “Our colleagues from the IRGC will interrogate you. You will only talk about Mallard (another explosion). Your job was to hit the blast chassis. Not a word more or less than what we told you. ‘Do not say otherwise. We will not put the meat in the bone.’ They meant that they would cable until the meat was separated from the bone of the foot.”

Maizar did not confess how the torturers wanted and said even though he was close to the blast, he was not hurt. The interrogator saw what was going on and said it was a conspiracy by the government. The Ministry of Intelligence, who was now interviewing Maizar, and the IRGC were at odds and the Ministry were not letting IRGC get away with the killing of Maizar.

Despite being deemed innocent, Maizar was held in prison for another 26 months. After three and a half years in prison, Maziar and the others were released. Maziar was forced to pay 215 million tomans (around $5,000 USD), and withdraw his complaint on the Ministry.

Why Massoud Ali-Mohammadi?

Massoud Ali-Mohammadi also has a sketchy past in eyes of the Iran government. Dubbed a nuclear scientist working on the country’s nuclear ambitions, he was the target of Israel and America to stop Iran from getting nuclear power. Israel and America hate Iran after all.

But, colleagues of Ali-Mohammadi say not so fast. Majid Mohammadi, a friend of Ali Mohammadi in college says he’s not a nuclear scientist. “Mu. Ali Mohammadi was a friend of mine in college. He was not a nuclear physicist. He was just a physicist. Maybe he taught a course or two on particle physics and this does not make him an expert in nuclear physics.

Majid says he believes the Iranian government is trying to construct a narrative. “I believe the Iranian governmental media highlights this word ‘nuclear’ to implicate that he was killed by the Israelis or Americans.”

Ali-Mohammadi was never involved with the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency according to other friends and long time colleagues.⁵

Ali-Mohammadi wasn’t really political most of his life. Then in 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected as president over Mir-Hossein Mousavi with alleged vote tampering. Massoud Alimohammadi believed Mousavi won the election fairly.⁷

Why was Ali-Mohammadi targeted by the Iran government? That may never be really answered. But we can look at what we do know. Iran executes those who oppose the government. Ali-Mohammadi became political after Ahmadinejad was elected with the vote tampering, beginning to give speeches on college campuses. Remember that Wikileaks cable from earlier?

Victims include intellectuals, young “pro-democracy activists.”

Ali-Mohammadi had become pro-democracy by calling out the unfairness of the election. In addition to that, according to the interview with Politico,⁵ Ali-Mohammadi worked on SESMAE project, a joint effort with Israel, the sworn enemy of Iran. “I know for a fact …. that SESAME (which employs mostly Jordanian scientists) is a fertile recruiting ground for all sorts of scientific espionage. If Mohammadi was too cozy with his Israeli colleagues, he may have been taken out by the Iranians themselves (through their Hezbollah allies in Tehran) as an example to other pro-reform academics. All highly speculative, of course, but I am convinced there is some intel connection in there somewhere.”

Why would Iran trust someone to work on the nuclear program, something so top secret, if he worked with the sworn enemy of the regime for over 10 years? They wouldn’t, plain and simple. The government wanted him dead and used his death for political purposes.

Why Majid Jamali Fashi?

If Iran killed Ali-Mohammadi, why did they go after Majid Jamali Fashi? I believe it was due to that WikiLeaks cable. Someone traveled to Baku and met with “spies.” We know for a fact that Fashi went to Baku and competed. As a matter of fact he even competed there. He got a bronze medal in a tournament with only three competitors; in other words, he came in last.

There was an alternative reason he was in Baku. According to Sadeghi of the Iran Wire, Fashi went to US Embassy seeking asylum.⁴ He was running from Iran, likely due to the country taking control of gyms and using them for political assassinations.

According to a State Department released by WikiLeaks, “Majid Jamali Fashi intended to immigrate to the United States after the Green Movement protests. In 20019, he applied for a US visa at the US Embassy in Baku. In an interview with a US diplomat, Mr. Fashi spoke of the violence of the Iranian security forces in suppressing the Green Movement, saying that he was leaving the Iranian Azeri movement and oppressing the Turkish people, and that he was pushing for cooperation with the security and intelligence forces.” They continued saying that,
Many believe that after the publication of this document by WikiLeaks, Majid Jamali Fashi will be arrested after returning to Iran. For this reason, he will be executed.”⁸

I am of the opinion that Fashi was paid to take the fall for the government. On the Iran Wire⁴, Mahmoud Sadeghi says that the Ministry of Intelligence lied about conviction and execution of Fashi was false. Sadeghi also uncovered the other two defendants in the case, Maziar Ebrahimi and Nader Nouri Kohan, were released after the execution of Fashi. Sadeghi also said as Fashi was being taken to execution, his neighboring cell-mates said a conversation between the officers proves his innocence saying, “Majid Jamali Fashi tells the officers that you promised to tell them that I was working with you and that when the main killer was arrested, you will appreciate me.” But, the officers responded to Fashi saying that the court’s opinion had not changed and decided to not show leniency.

It was also promised to Fashi, according to Sadeghi, that after his confessions, the case would be closed. Then the ones (Iran) responsible for the execution would not carry out the sentence, but he would instead get a new identity.

From the first Wikileaks post, “Hooshang” visited Baku and Fashi visited Baku. The government likely saw this is the “smoking gun” they would roll with to push their agenda.

What does our side believe?

WikiLeaks has been a great tool for me in this research. Our allies and government were torn between Fashi doing the murder and the Irani government doing it. Stratfor is a global intelligence contractor that gets information and basically sells it to the highest bidder. In the 2012 leak, The Global Intelligence Files, WikiLeaks published emails relating to Ali-Mohammadi and Majid Jamali Fashi.

Stratfor had several different thoughts on the situation. First, they believed Fashi to be in league with the government. They alluded to the fact that the aired confession raised some questions and believed that Fashi was part of the Iran government that carried out political executions. The firm discovered that Majid Jamali Fashi was a avant supporter of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the fraudulently elected leader. The leak goes on to say that Fashi was sent to break up the Green Movement protests in 2009, the same protests that Ali-Mohammadi began to decry. The cable stated finally that they believed Fashi would become the scapegoat for the organization.⁹

Another Stratfor leak would go on to say that the accusations of Fashi seem to be “most likely taken from an american spy movie.”¹⁰

Stratfor also doubted Ali-Mohammadi’s nuclear work. In conjunction with his colleague, they verified that very little of Ali-Mohammadi’s work dealt with nuclear physics, but instead focused on theoretical physics. His academic pursuits would leave little time for nuclear work as well. The firm went on to say that if Ali-Mohammadi worked on the Iran nuclear program, it would not be very significant.¹¹ That begs the question, why would Israel target a scientist who had little to nothing to do with the Irani nuclear program?

Lastly, if Majid Jamali Fashi did or did not do the bombing, who did? Abu Nasser. Nasser is an Al-Queida recruiter and the hit man of Iran’s nefarious actions. He was allegedly photographed by Ali-Mohammadi’s house before the bombing, though the picture couldn’t be found in my independent research.¹²

Stratfor would go on to say that it was Iran that actually killed Ali-Mohammadi to send a message.¹³

Is Fashi alive or dead?

That’s the real question. In short, we don’t know. Majid Jamali Fashi was allegedly promised freedom and a new identity. But, if he attempted to seek asylum, he could have been killed. But, with the public nature Iran uses on athletes and other popular names, it doesn’t really fit in line.

Iran is a regime of terror that is killing their citizens and has been for a very long time. Since the execution of Navid Afkari in 2020, I’ve covered the killings of Afkari, Mehdi Ali Hosseini, and Ali Mutairi in addition to the arrest of Reza Tabrizi. It led me down this dark rabbit hole that leads me to believe Iran killed Mr. Ali-Mohammadi and tried to use it to their political advantage.

Please read up on all the past coverage I’ve done on Iran and share. This regime needs to be reeled in for their human rights violations and downright abomination of the taking of human lives for political purposes. Thank you for reading.

Sources

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoud_Alimohammadi
2: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12191203
3: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49284659
4: https://iranwire.com/fa/features/34007
5: https://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/0110/Who_killed_Massoud_Ali_Mohammadi_.html
6: https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0717/Covert-war-against-Iran-s-nuclear-scientists-a-widow-remembers
7: https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/iran-kill-nuclear-scientists/story?id=16413806
8: https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-49221220?ocid=socialflow_twitter
9: https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/20/2022078_-ct-debka-the-confessed-mossad-spy-is-majid-the-irgc.html
10: https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/12/1290555_re-mesa-ct-fwd-os-iran-israel-ct-israel-spreading-spy-hubs.html
11: https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/13/1320090_iran-ali-mohammadi-s-academic-record-.html
12: https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/37/378004_re-tactical-what-was-the-exact-name-of-the-hz-guy.html
13: https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/38/380329_re-tactical-ali-mohammadi-.html