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'Asadollah Lajevardi', who was also called b "the butcher of Evin Prison", Tehran was the head of the Evin till 1985 when he was replaced due to complaints of other clergy. He is said to be personally responsible for the torture and execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners who opposed Iran's ruling theocratic dictatorship. Some accounts estimate the number of executions under his supervision to be roughly around 2500. Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi in her memoirs, Iran Awakening (Random House Trade Paperback Edition, 2007, page 90) states that 4000-5000, alone, is the estimated number of executions of members and supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MKO) during a 3-month period in 1988 following the failed "Mersad" rebellion immediately which was launched upon the end of the Iran-Iraq War by MKO fighters based in Iraq.
He was assassinated by supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran while at his tailor-shop, and while in the company of a bodyguard (who was also killed), in Tehran's Bazaar on August 22, 1998.
The Mojahedin Command Headquarters inside Iran issued a statement which said "Assadollah Lajevardi, the infamous 'Butcher of Evin,' who was accompanied by a special group of bodyguards made up of Revolutionary Guards and armed agents of the notorious secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence, was killed at midday today in an operation carried out by Mojahedin's Resistance units in Tehran."
The statement, in addition to providing details of the operation, numerated some of Lajevardi's crimes against humanity:
1. As the Revolutionary Prosecutor of Tehran and the governor of Evin prison, and acting on Khomeini's personal orders, Lajevardi was directly responsible for the execution of tens of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, mainly from the Mojahedin. On February 8, 1982, Lajevardi commanded the attack on the Mojahedin's central base in Tehran. He appeared on the state television that evening holding in his arms the infant son of Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi and his wife, Ashraf, over the dead bodies of Ashraf and Moussa Khiabani, Mr. Rajavi's deputy in Iran.
2. In prison, Lajevardi raped or executed hundreds of women, who included teenage girls and elderly mothers.
3. He personally tortured political prisoners and fired coup de grace at executed prisoners.
4. Lajevardi personally tortured and executed Mrs. Sakineh Mohammadi Ardehali, 60, Mrs. Akram Islami, 70, Mrs. Malek-Taj Hakamian, 50, Mrs. Arasteh Qolivand, 57, Mrs. Rezvan Rafipour, and Mrs. Massoumeh Shadmani, Mrs. Massoumeh Azodanlou (younger sister of Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi), Mrs. Zohreh Tabrizi, Mrs. Qodsi Mohammadi and Mrs. Shahla Hariri-Motlaq.
5. Lajevardi formed criminal gangs and death squads consisting of Revolutionary Guards and criminal agents in order to assault and assassinate Mojahedin activists and political prisoners after their release from jail.
6. He made it a common practice in prisons to torture prisoners in front of their parents, husbands or wives and children.
7. Lajevardi devised a plan to set up forced labor camps for political prisoners on a nation-wide scale.
Lajevardi continued his crimes under various covers and one of them was located in Tehran's Bazaar.