On 6 August 1991, Bakhtiar was murdered along with his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, by three assassins in his home in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes.

The inquest found that he was stabbed by a knife matching a nearby blood stained bread knife. Bakhtiar's dead body was not found until at least 36 hours after his death, despite the fact that he had heavy police protection and that his killers had left ID (presumably faked) with a guard at his house. Two of the assassins escaped to Iran but the third, Ali Vakili Rad, was apprehended in Switzerland, as well as an alleged accomplice, Zeyal Sarhadi, a great-nephew of former president of Iran Hashemi Rafsanjani, and both were extradited to France for trial. Vakili Rad was sentenced to life in prison in December 1994, but Sarhadi was acquitted. Vakili Rad was paroled from jail in France, after serving 18 years of his sentence on 19 May 2010. He was received as a hero by Iranian officials. This happened only two days after Tehran freed Clotilde Reiss, a French student accused of spying by the Islamic regime. Both the French and Iranian governments deny the two affairs are linked.

Bakhtiar is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

Recommended Reading:

Dialogue of Murder: A cautionary tale that must not be forgotten. by Cyrus Kadivar (January 26, 2003, iranian.com)

Related Blog:

Dialogue of Murder: Shapour Bakhtiar's slit throat exposed after assassination ( August 6th, 1991)