Liberal dissidents to commemorate murdered nationalist
leader
TEHRAN, Dec 30 (AFP) - Around 300 liberal political personalities said
Wednesday they will gather at a Tehran mosque on Thursday to commemorate
the violent murder of a nationalist leader and his wife last month.
The dissidents said in a notice published in moderate Etelaat newspaper
that they will meet in Fakhr mosque in northern Tehran to mark the 40th
day after the deaths of Daryush Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh. The
couple were stabbed to death in their Tehran home by unidentified intruders
on November 22.
"We will gather to commemorate the martyrdom of these heros of
the Iranian nationalist movement," the notice said.
The notice was signed by some 300 opposition activists, university
professors, doctors and former government officials.
The authorities have pledged to investigate the murders, but they have
not divulged any information on the case.
Foruhar, 70, was the leader of the Party of the Iranian Nation, a secular
movement banned but tolerated here, and an outspoken critic of the Islamic
regime.
He was the minister of labour in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan
who became prime minister after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But the transitional government was ousted after eight months and Foruhar
has since been campaigning against the government.
The couple's assassination preceded the kidnapping and murder of two
secular intellectuals -- Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammadeh Pouyandeh --
by unknown killers early this month.
Another writer, Majid Sharif, was found dead in mysterious circumstances.
The authorities said he had died of a heart attack.
Iranian authorities have condemned the chain of killings and blamed
them on a "foreign enemy plot" aimed at undermining the Islamic
regime.