Did Iran's president take part in a demo during a brutal afternoon in London (or was it a man who looked exactly like him?)
By Jason Lewis
Last updated at 12:28 AM on 29th November 2009
The features are unmistakable, the fervour irrepressible as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad turns against a crowd of opponents.
But despite the uncanny likeness, officially this is not the President of Iran who oversaw the bloody suppression of his country’s democracy movement.
This picture was taken in London in 1984 and raises puzzling queries over Mr Ahmadinejad, 53.
Much of his rise to Iran’s presidency is shrouded in the secrecy which surrounds what has gone on in the pariah state since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 swept the late Ayatollah Khomeini to power.
A man with an almost uncanny resemblance to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad protests at the Iranian Embassy in London in 1984
Now this photograph, unearthed by The Mail on Sunday, suggests a young Mr Ahmadinejad spent time in London and took part in a notorious incident which demonstrated his and the Iranian regime’s repressive and sometimes violent nature.
The picture, first published by the Daily Mail on April 27, 1984, shows a smart-suited man on the balcony of the Iranian consulate in Kensington, his fist raised in a menacing salute as he harangues anti-Khomeini demonstrators in the street below.
The man, who reports described as a diplomat, had stepped on to the balcony hours after protesters opposed to the Islamic
regime stormed the building as part of synchronised worldwide action.
As demonstrators burst in chanting anti-Khomeini slogans, consulate staff, including members of the notorious Republican Guard, locked them in the reception room.
