Iran announces arrest of more of its intelligence agents
TEHRAN, Jan 27 (AFP) - Iran's intelligence ministry said Wednesday
it had arrested several of its agents, accusing them of clandestinely distributing
political leaflets.
"Several agents who were involved in distributing underground
letters and counterfeit documents have been arrested and handed over to
the judiciary," an unnamed intelligence official said, quoted by the
official IRNA news agency.
The official said the head of the gang "claiming to have access
to classified foreign documents has accused some government officials
of committing treason."
"He sent his communiques to various organisations," he said,
adding that the authorities had seized weapons, documents and statements
which the gang had prepared for distribution.
"Initial investigation found that the man in charge of the gang
suffers from a superiority complex," the official said, without elaborating.
The news of the latest arrests comes just weeks after the intelligence
ministry admitted that rogue secret agents were involved in a string of
recent murders of political dissidents and intellectuals.
Iranian authorities have been searching for a shadowy group, calling
itself the Fedayeen (Devotees) of Pure Islam, which has been anonymously
faxing letters to newspapers and intellectuals threatening them with death.
The group had claimed responsibility for the murders of nationalist
opposition leader Daryush Foruhar and his wife as well as those of two
writers in November and December.
It also claimed an attack on a group of visiting Americans as they
were travelling in a bus in Tehran in mid-November.
But IRNA did not say if the agents arrested were linked to the Fedayeen,
or disclose the themes of their secret leaflets.
The Fedayeen, who emerged several months ago, have vowed to undermine
President Mohammad Khatami's reform programme and have accused moderate
officials of betraying the fundamental principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The authorities said early this month they had arrested 10 people for
complicity in the recent murders and that many more were under surveillance.
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