Saeed Karimian Persian: سعید کریمیان | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 29 April 2017 | (aged 44)
Cause of death | Assassination |
Citizenship | Iranian British |
Occupation(s) | founder and chairman of Gem Televisions Network |
Saeed Karimian (8 August 1972[1] – 29 April 2017) was an Iranian television executive, the founder, chairman, and owner of Dubai-based [2] GEM TV, which runs 17 Persian-language TV channels, plus one each in Kurdish, Azeri, and Arabic.[3][4] Karimian, who was British national,[5] had been tried in absentia by a court in Tehran, and sentenced to a prison term of six years for spreading propaganda against Iran.[4]
Karimian was shot dead in Istanbul, Turkey, on 29 April 2017, along with his Kuwaiti business partner.[3][4][5] According to the exiled Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance, Karimian was assassinated by the Revolutionary Guard on the orders of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader.[6] In May 2017, Turkish media reported that two people accused for the assassination of Karimian were arrested in Serbia with fake passports on their way to Iran.[7]