Mohammad Mosaddegh

Mohammad Mosaddegh was Prime Minister of Iran when the country nationalised its oil industry. On 19 August 1953 a coup backed by British and American intelligence overthrew him. He surrendered the following day. He was charged with treason, and prosecutors asked for the death penalty. In December 1953 a military court sentenced him to three years in solitary confinement, and he is reported to have thanked the judges, saying that the sentence had increased his historic glory. He was then held under house arrest at his village home at Ahmadabad until he died of cancer on 5 March 1967.

For decades the coup was officially denied in the West. During Barack Obama's presidency the United States formally acknowledged its role, including paying protesters and bribing officials. In Iran Mosaddegh remains one of the most popular figures in the country's history. In March 1979, at the twelfth anniversary of his death, an estimated one million people gathered at his burial site.