Ghotbzadeh accompanied Khomeini on his Air France flight back to Iran on 1 February 1979. It was Ghotbzadeh, who translated the Ayatollah’s infamous response “Hichi (Nothing)” to journalist John Simpson’s question: “Ayatollah, would you be so kind as to tell us how you feel about being back in homeland?”
Sadegh Ghotbzadeh (1936 – 1982) was a close aide of Ayatollah Khomeini during his 1978 exile in France, and foreign minister during the homeland hostage crisis following the Revolution. In 1982, he was executed for allegedly plotting the assassination of Ayatollah Khomeini and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Ghotbzadeh was born in Isfahan in 1936. He had a sister and a brother. His father was a wealthy lumber merchant.As a student, he was active in the student branch of the National Front following the toppling of Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953.
