Quillette Podcast The Ayatollahs' Assassins
Mar 27, 2026
Roya Hakakian, Jewish-Iranian writer and investigative journalist, recounts state-sponsored killings and landmark trials tied to Iran's regime. She describes the Mykonos assassinations, the Mykonos trial's legal impact, Tehran's hit lists and targeting of Kurds, and how diplomacy masked covert violence. Short, vivid scenes and legal drama drive the conversation.
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Mykonos Restaurant Massacre In Berlin
- Roya Hakakian recounts the Mykonos attack where two gunmen stormed a Berlin restaurant and killed four Iranian-Kurdish opposition figures in September 1992.
- The shooters used a machine gun and handgun in a back room; six others survived and the attack launched a four-year investigation and trial.
Landmark Trial Against A Sitting Foreign Regime
- The Mykonos trial was the first German court condemnation of a currently ruling foreign regime for assassinations on its soil since World War II.
- Roya argues this case became a landmark for European judicial accountability and international human rights precedent.
The Revolutionary Hit List Reaches Abroad
- Roya describes a long-standing assassination list drawn up after the 1979 revolution that targeted dissidents worldwide, beginning with a 1980 murder in Maryland.
- She notes the list included entertainers and ordinary opponents and that many assassins escaped prosecution by returning to Iran.
