Iranian intelligence minister slams outcry over arrested
Jews
TEHRAN, June 21 (AFP) - Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi Monday
attacked the "hullaballoo" raised about the arrest of 13 Iranian
Jews on spying charges.
"They were arrested a long time ago, but we did not want to impede
the course of the inquiry by making a public announcement, but international
Zionism published the news," he said, quoted on state television.
He added that the case had been submitted to the courts.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi said Monday that
the arrest of the Jews had "nothing to do with their religion."
He said the issue was an "internal affair."
"All those arrested are Iranian citizens and are accused of espionage
and working against national security," he said.
"Statements of support aimed at influencing the fair course of
their trial are tantamount to interference in the internal affairs of
the Islamic Republic and will be rejected," he added.
The arrest of the 13 Jews, mainly in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz,
has provoked a wave of protest internationally, in particular from the
US and Israel as well as a number of European countries.
Meanwhile, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri met the country's
chief rabbi and other leading members of the Iranian Jewish community.
Nateq-Nuri affirmed that the Jewish community in Iran "enjoys the
same legal protection as other Iranian citizens," the official news
agency IRNA said.
The meeting was attended by chief rabbi Yusef Hamedani-Cohen, Harun
Yashayai, head of the Association of Jews in Iran, as well as Manochehr
Eliasi, who represents the Jewish community in parliament.
Eliasi informed Nateq-Nuri of the "problems currently facing the
Jewish community in Iran," IRNA reported.
Iran's penal code, revised in 1996, introduced the death penalty for
those found guilty of spying for Israel or the United States, both avowed
enemies of the Islamic republic.
Links