Saeed Hajjarian

Saeed Hajjarian (سعید حجاریان in Persian) was a young Iranian revolutionary during the 1979 revolution in Iran. He was involved with the formation of the intelligence apparatus of the newly founded Islamic Republic. Through the 1980s, he was in the Intelligence Ministry. His positions included political deputy to the Intelligence Minister. In late 1980s, he left the Intelligence Ministry, and established an institute for strategic studies. That was where he played an important role in creating a new discourse based on democracy and rule of law for his generation of revolutionaries. Mohammad Khatami was elected President in 1997 using these slogans. After being elected, Khatami appointed Hajjarian his political advisor. In 1999, Hajjarian was elected to the city council of Tehran in Iran's first city elections after the 1979 revolution. He was also the editor of Sobh-e Emrooz newspaper, which was a strong advocate of Khatami's reform. He was believed to be the source of many of reports by two investigative journalists Akbar Ganji and Emadeddin Baghi.

From all these, the conservatives opposing Khatami came to the conclusion that he was the main strategist of the reformist camp. This led to his attempted assassination on the doorstep of Tehran's city council in March 2000. He was not killed, but was badly paralyzed. His assailant Saeed Asgar was arrested, but released after spending a short term in prison.