down the momentum of the revolution, the Shah was advised by many of his surrounding advisors to arrest Hoveida, using him as a scapegoat for the past-ills of the crumbling regime. Since Hoveyda was widely seen as a major cause of the revolution due to much of the bad press he had generated throughout the years by newspapers that wanted to indirectly attack the Shah's policies, they reasoned that the public would be appeased. In September, Hoveyda was forced to resign his position of Minister of Court. On 7 November 1978, Hoveyda was arrested together with other 60 former officials. He would be held under house arrest in an upper-Tehran residence often affiliated with SAVAK activity, and the Shah assumed that he would be put on trial, and freed after publicly vindicating himself. However, once the Shah fled the country, the SAVAK (Iranian state security) agents assigned with the task of guarding Hoveyda, absconded from their posts, leaving Hoveida open to arrest by revolutionary forces. Hoveyda refused requests by friends and relatives to flee Iran before it was too late, and instead turned himself into the authorities. Hoveyda believed that as the trial would be before an Islamic court, and that he personally had done nothing wrong, he would be acquitted. Trial and execution Hoveyda was taken to the Refah School, a temporary headquarters for the revolution's vanguard. Because of the departure of the Shah and much of the ruling class, Hoveyda had become the most prized prisoner of the old government. On 15 March 1979, he would face the newly established Revolutionary Court for the first time. During this time he attempted to create his legal arguments for the court. He was interviewed by Belgian journalist Christine Ockrent, a now infamous interview in which Hoveyda was subject to near accusatory questions by the interviewer. The clerical judge appointed by Khomeini, Sadeq Khalkhali, would come to be known as the 'Hanging Judge' for his violent approach to revolutionary justice. He was the head of the tribunal that had assembled to try the former prime minister. Prior to Hoveyda's trial, Khalkhali had already ordered the execution of dozens, possibly hundreds of political prisoners, and would eventually be responsible for thousands of executions. Traditional conventions of the judiciary had all but been abandoned during the trials of Hoveyda and countless others. Among many of the anomalous traits personified by the trial, the