Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. This is an extremely interesting piece of history from the Gulf War era! This handwritten letter was written on March 1, 1990 and sent to an unknown Minister of Foreign Affairs refusing all mediation requesting amnesty for the British journalist, Farzad Bazoft, who was an Iranian journalist who settled in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s. He worked as a freelance reporter for The Observer. He was arrested by Iraqi authorities and executed in 1990 after being convicted of spying for Israel while working in Iraq. The letter is dated March 1, 1990 and Bazoft was executed on March 15, 1990.

Included is a rough translation and it is hard to read the script in which the Arabic was written. We are not professional translators, but we will include an English transcript of the translation we received.

This is a wonderful piece of history and the letter even has traces of fingerprints on it! Comes ready to translate and display.

Bazoft came to live in the United Kingdom in 1975 at the age of 16. He was sentenced to 18 months jail after robbing the Heart of England Building Society in Brackley in 1981. The sentence included a deportation order, which Bazoft appealed against successfully in 1983.

After finishing his education he began a career as a freelance journalist, contributing articles about the Middle East and, in particular, the Iran–Iraq War to news outlets including The Observer and the BBC. In 1989 he was invited by the Iraqi government to come to Iraq along with other journalists to report on elections being held in Kurdistan. Before Bazoft set off, he learned about a mysterious explosion that had occurred on 19 September 1989 at the al-Iskandaria military complex, 50 kilometers (31 mi) south of Baghdad. The heavy detonation was heard as far away as Baghdad. Despite Saddam Hussein's personal order to keep the matter secret, rumors began to spread that the accident happened in a rocket factory's assembly line, killing dozens of Egyptian technicians involved in Iraq's secret development of medium-range ballistic missiles.

Sensing a possible scoop, Bazoft headed for al-Hilla to search for details. He allegedly undertook his investigation with the approval of Iraqi officials. Observer editor Donald Trelford said in response to Bazoft's arrest: "Farzad Bazoft is not a spy. He is a reporter who went to do a story. He said in advance the story he was going to do. He told the Baghdad government where he wanted to go. ... This is not the action of a spy, this is the action of a reporter." Other Western reporters were also interested in the story, but a camera crew from Independent Television News was stopped by Iraqi authorities before they could reach the plant. Bazoft got through, driven by British nurse Daphne Parish. Bazoft also asked military personnel in Baghdad hotels and casinos what they knew and was reported by hotel security to the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

Bazoft was arrested at Baghdad International Airport in September 1989, while waiting for his flight back to London. He had 34 photographs of the area of al-Hilla in his luggage, and some soil from near the factory. After six weeks in custody at the Abu Ghraib prison, and, after beatings, Bazoft was put in front of TV cameras on 1 November and made to confess to being an Israeli agent. Parish had also been arrested by Iraqi authorities. Before their trial, President Saddam Hussein wrote to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher assuring her that Bazoft and Parish would get a fair trial.

Following a one-day trial behind closed doors, lacking conclusive evidence of his guilt, Bazoft was convicted and sentenced to death on 10 March 1990. Parish was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but she was released on 16 July 1990 following a plea for clemency from Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda.

International appeals for clemency for Bazoft had no effect. He was not permitted to appeal against his conviction or sentence, and was executed by hanging at 6:30am on 15 March 1990.