Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naghdi is the Supreme Leader's newly appointed head of the much hated Baseej militia. He is born in Najaf, Iraq and is part of the Iraqi migrants who came to Iran known as Moavedin. Naghdi has an extensive track record of brutal torture and violence, even rape and armed robbery against ordinary citizens. He first became a public figure during the trial of Tehran's successful and competent mayor, Gholamhossein Karbaschi and his deputies in 1997 who were subjected to horrific tortures. Naghdi personally supervised the brutal interrogations at what became known as the Vessal detention.
Naghdi was the key organiser of the pressure group Ansar Hezbollah, which attacked political rallies and meetings in the late 90s including the raid on student dormitories in 1999.
In 2001, a series of armed robberies gripped Tehran and became known as the chain armed robberies. One robbery however led to the disclosure of General Naghdi himself in the robberies. Police were alerted by a neighbour when a wealthy Iranian merchant's house was being robbed, but the merchant was lucky because his daughter was married to an officer in the air forces. Police arrested the robbers but they were quickly released. As a result of the merchant's connections in the armed forces, he was encouraged to make a complaint in the courts. The merchant's son-in-law also took the complaint to the president's office and to Karroubi's office as well as the parliament's article 90 commission, which investigated complaints against the judiciary. As a result of the merchant's persistence, the investigations revealed that Genral Naghdi and eight members of the Law Enforcement Forces were behind more than 100 armed robberies, 13 murders and many cases of rape against ordinary citizens.
Naghdi was tried behind closed doors and sentenced to three months prison but the sentence was never carried out and although he was removed from his office, he became a special advisor on military affairs to the Supreme Leader.
In 2005 when Ahmadinejad became the president of the Islamic Republic, Naghdi was appointed as the head of the Committee to Combat the Drug and Currency Commodity Smuggling. In reality however Naghdi wasn't there to 'Combat' the smugglers, as Karroubi previously revealed in the parliament, the Revolutionary Guards themselves were carrying out the smuggling. An operation which nets an estimated annual income of 8 Billion dollars for the IRGC. Naghdi was merely protecting the smugglers not combating them.
Iran is now ruled by the most criminal elements in the society who instead of being behind bars, head the very establishments which are supposed to protect the public.
