The Trial of Mohammad Mossadegh

The verdict was a stark contrast to the acquittal of his Foreign Minister, Hossein Fatemi, who was a more junior and less influential figure. This signaled that the regime's true target was Mossadegh himself and the potent symbol of popular will he represented. Fatemi would later face a separate, more brutal trial and be executed, while Mossadegh’s old age and international notoriety spared him the ultimate punishment, though not a life of isolation and surveillance.