An Iranian researcher has named a newly discovered praying mantis species Sinaiella azadi, or freedom mantis in Persian, to highlight the importance of scientific freedom as domestic repression and obstacles to cross-border collaboration mount.
Mohsen Rafiqdoost, a former bodyguard of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and an architect of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), made the comments in a recently surfaced video interview.
A bank account in Frankfurt was used to channel money for covert operations abroad, Rafiqdoost said, including for the killing of a former Iranian military commander General Gholam-Ali Oveisi in Paris in 1984.
“We had an account under the name KM,” he said in the video published Monday by Abdollah Abdi, the editor of independent outlet Abdi Media. “The money in that account was used for actions outside the country that could not be done with ordinary funds.”
He also linked the account to proceeds from arms sales during the Iran-Iraq war, recalling how a weapons purchase in Spain left a surplus of $10,000. “That was the beginning of moving funds into that account,” he said.
Rafiqdoost’s statements follow remarks he made on Saturday to the Iranian site Didban Iran, where he said he oversaw multiple assassination operations targeting dissidents. He named several figures killed in Europe, including Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister under the Shah, and Fereydoun Farrokhzad, a singer and outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic.
“The Basque separatist group in Spain carried out these assassinations for us. We paid them, and they conducted the killings on our behalf,” he said.
Rafiqdoost's office disavowed the interviews, chalking the reported comments up to mental deficiencies after surgery and media distortions.
"Mr. Rafiqdoost underwent brain surgery in past years, which resulted in extensive complications and may have affected his recollection of certain memories and names. Therefore, his statements are not legally or historically reliable," it said in a statement.
"Media judgments regarding his statements are inaccurate. Only the official narrative of the events in question can be considered valid."
Khomeini critic silenced
US-based former Iranian ambassador to Germany Hossein Mousavian expressed surprise at the remarks, saying in a post on X that he had believed for decades that Farrokhzad’s killing was the work of Iranian opposition groups.
“After 32 years, for the first time, I learned the facts of the case from Mr. Rafiqdoust’s interview,” added Mousavian, now at Princeton University, New Jersey.
Farrokhzad was murdered in 1992 in Bonn, Germany. At the time, Iranian officials denied involvement, while reports suggested a professional-style hit.
German police found Farrokhzad's body in the kitchen of his apartment. A switchblade had been driven into his right shoulder from behind, and a longer kitchen knife was lodged in his mouth.
In exile, Farrokhzad had become a fierce and outspoken critic of Iran's clerical rulers. He repeatedly mocked Khomeini, portraying him as an illiterate, superstitious figure with sexual fixations in his writings.
Farrokhzad’s murder is often considered part of the so-called Chain Murders in Iran—an series of assassinations that saw numerous dissident intellectuals and activists either disappear or be killed between 1986 and 1998.
The Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence later admitted responsibility for some of the killings.
Mousavian said the Iranian embassy had even facilitated talks for Farrokhzad’s possible return to Iran.
“My colleagues and I at the embassy worked diligently for several months with full capacity, sincerity, and conviction to obtain the approval of the relevant Iranian authorities for his return and security,” he wrote.
Human rights organizations have long accused Tehran of orchestrating assassinations abroad. In a report published in December, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center detailed four decades of extrajudicial killings tied to the Islamic Republic.
Mahmood Kolnegari, a PhD researcher at the University of Córdoba in Spain, discovered the insect in central Iran's mountainous region in 2022 according to a Monday report by Mongabay, an independent media organization reporting on nature.
Iranian researchers' work is often hindered by political oversight and travel restrictions while international sanctions limit scientists ability to work with peers abroad.
"Ecologists and naturalists ... need to be free to travel across these man-made boundaries," Kolnegari said, "to explore, to find species, and this is the first step of conservation."
Decades of sanctions have disrupted funding, hindered equipment procurement, and blocked access to international services. Domestically, the government's security focus restricts free inquiry, with censorship and political oversight prevalent.
The discovery of the mantis, detailed in a study published in February, marks the first recorded presence of the Sinaiella genus in Iran and Armenia, expanding its known range beyond the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt.
"Freedom is the essence of human life," Kolnegari said, explaining his choice of name. "Taxonomists require freedom to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate across geographic and political boundaries to correctly place species within the taxonomic tree of life."
The discovery involved an international team of scientists from Iran, Armenia, Germany, and Switzerland, demonstrating the potential for cross-border scientific partnerships despite political challenges.
"Good professional and personal relationships between scientists from all countries are especially important now, with so many wars and political divisions going on," said Evgeny Shcherbakov, a mantis expert from Lomonosov Moscow State University, who was involved in connecting the researchers.
Kolnegari found the new species, Sinaiella azadi, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran’s Markazi province at an elevation of 2,130 meters. The insect, characterized by dark back wings and a twig-like camouflage, exhibits a defensive behavior known as thanatosis, mimicking fallen vegetation when disturbed.
"I saw that slender, very tiny mantis, and I thought it couldn’t be here, because it is originally from the southern part of Asia," Kolnegari told Mongabay. "It is a ‘completely morphologically new type of mantis and completely different from other types of mantises known from central Iran."
The discovery also raises conservation concerns, as the mantis's habitat is outside protected areas and faces threats from livestock grazing and human development.
