Khameneh'i, Rafsanjani, Fallahian reported as possible
"master killers"
By Safa Haeri , Editor
Iran Press Service
PARIS 3RD JAN. (IPS) An Iranian clerical source working closely with
the intelligence-terrorist machine of the Islamic Republic has formally
confirmed the responsibility of the regime's leaders in the recent assassinations,
including that of Mr. Dariush Foruhar, the 70 years-old leader of the Iranian
People's Party and his wife Parvaneh on 21st of November 1998.
The cleric, identified by informed sources as hojatoleslam Ja'far Baqrian
alias Avazi has offered to German authorities "highly valuable and
sensitive informations" concerning the latest murders of Iranian dissident
politicians and intellectuals, as well as a list of more than 170 Iranian
personalities to be assassinated inside and outside Iran to Germany authorities
Mr. Baqerian, who's name seems to be is faked, had been arrested in
the last days of December at Frankfurt Airport on route to Canada, travelling
with a falsified Iranian passport. Presenting himself as an adviser to
the Majles (parliament) "Crisis Committee", he has applied for
political asylum from Germany, sources told the IPS.
As days pass and the regime seems incapable of telling the truth about
the latest assassinations of dissident politicians and intellectuals that
shocked and overwhelmed the Iranians as well as the international public
opinion, it emerges now that the murders had been decided, ordered and
carried out by the hard line wing of the conservative ayatollahs that controls
the Islamic Republic.
Investigation undertaken by the Iran Press Service (IPS) in Tehran as
well as interviews with highly informed Iranian intelligence sources outside
Iran points the fingers directly to the semi-clandestine, but influential
terrorist islamist organisation known as the Feda'iyane Eslam (FE).
According to our investigation, the assassination cell of the Feda'iyane
Eslam has been re-organised by the hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian, the former
Information (Intelligence) Minister who, because of his role in the assassination
of 4 Iranian political dissidents of Kurdish minority in Berlin in 1992,
the German authorities in 1996 issued an international warrant order against
him.
After the victory of the ayatollah Mohammad Khatami in the presidential
elections of 1997 and the nomination of the hojatoleslam Dorri Najaf-Abadi
as the new Information Minister, Mr. Fallahian joined the tightly closed
circle of the leader's personal advisers to head the intelligence and Special
Operations affairs.
Placed under the direct supervision of the leader, the Special Operations
Committee (SOC), made of an autonomous unit of the Islamic revolution's
guards known as the "Qods" and special agents and terrorist of
the Information Ministry, was created to eliminate all opponents of the
Islamic regime, but particularly those opposed to the concept of velayate
faqih, the corner stone of the present regime symbolised by the ayatollah
Khameneh'i. Mr. Ali Keshtgar, the Editor of the Paris-based "Mihan"
monthly says at least the government, with three of them belonging to security
forces now knows 7 agents who participated in the killings.
That could explain why the Judiciary has taken the extraordinary measure
to transfer the murder cases to the military justice, saying it lacked
both competence and expertise in investigating them.
According to Mr. Keshtgar, the other 4 are high-ranking officers of
the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards) attached to the Information Ministry,
meaning they belong to the same notorious "Qods" unit charged
by the leader for the assassination of the opponents.
The assassinations are probably planed by the Islamic Co-ordination
League that takes its orders from the ayatollah Khameneh'i and that, in
turn, controls the Feda'iyane Eslam, said Mr. Kaeshtgar.
In fact, since the military justice is under the direct of the leader
and its investigations are carried with secrecy, that deprives the government
of Mr. Khatami to have direct access to the cases and the pro-Khatami press
to look into it, as it has done so far by, among other things, questioning
the legality of the judiciary to disengage itself from the matter.
"This decision proves that the authorities (conservatives) do not
want the murderers be discovered and known, preferring instead the secrecy
of the military justice. Again, the decision proves that the security and
military personnel must be involved in the assassinations", according
to Mr. Ahmad Salamatian, a former MP and associate of Mr. Banisadr.
Formed in the fifties by Navab Safavi, a disciple and admirer of the
Egyptian Hassan Bana who had created the Ekhwan el Moslemin (Muslim Brotherhood)
organisation to revive the prophet's Islamic empire, the FE, infiltrated
from the outset by the then Soviet-controlled Tudeh (Communist) Party of
Iran, quickly established a dark record of political assassinations by
killing at least 4 pro-Britain or pro-American Prime Ministers and one
nationalist Foreign Minister.
All the past and present highest ranking personalities of the Islamic
Republic, from the grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny down to the ayatollahs
Ali Khameneh'i, the present leader of the regime, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,
the former president and the number two man in the system's hierarchy who
is regarded as the most "cynical, influential if not mysterious"
of the regime, Mohammad Yazdi, the Head of the Islamic Judiciary, Ahmad
Jannati and Emami Kashani, influential members of the Council of Guardians,
Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, the Speaker of the Majles (parliament) or Mohsen
Reza'i and Yahya Rahim Safavi, former and president Commanders of the Revolutionary
Guards and many others were members of the FE.
Staunch nationalists and firm secularists, principles abhorred by the
FE and ayatollahs like Mr. Khameneh'i, both husband and wife were outspoken
opponents of the religious nature of the Iranian regime, calling publicly
and consistently for a secular, Western-type parliamentary political system.
Banned in the sixties by the Shah, the organisation went underground,
but kept its hold on the Iranian clerical and religiously traditional milieus
closely connected to the bazaar, the country's economic nerve centre and
the rural grand feudality.
The murder of the Foruhar couple was immediately followed by those of
at least three secular intellectuals opposed to the concept of the Velayate
Faqih.
Observers noted that unlike the president, Mr. Khameneh'i did not condemned
the killings, nor expressed any friendly words for the victims, but ordered
the responsible administrations to investigate the cases and go to the
roots, that he said to be "sure that will be found outside the country".
Ms Parastou Foruhar, the 36 years-old daughter of the couple disclosed
that agents of the Information Ministry have removed from the house a great
number of documents and personal affairs belonging to her assassinated
parents without she being able to obtain them back from the authorities.
Sources at the IPP and very close to the slain couple confirmed to IPS
that the Foruhar's residence in central Tehran was constantly watched by
the Information Ministry that had installed a watching point in front of
the house, photographing everyone entering or leaving the residence.
"How come that the authorities say they don't know who the killers
are, since they have their pictures. How come that the assassins took amply
their time, visibly not perturbed nor worried, if not being sure that they
are covered?" observed a leading member of the IPP.
Mr. Bahram Namazi, a spokesman for the IPP publicly accused a "section
of the Intelligence-security organisations" of the regime to have
participated and co-ordinated the murder of the Foruhar as well as those
of other dissidents with the aim to create "fear and terror"
in the society.
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