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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
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E u R
A German court judges Tehran guilty of murder, setting off a crisis in Europe's relati
By JAMES WALSH
HE CASE TOOK 13 MONTHS OF PREiminary
investigations followed
by a trial of 31/2 years. It entailed
246 sessions of court, 176witnesses
and documentary evidence
ranging from secret intelligence
files to tapes of Iranian television
broadcasts. That the two lead defendants
.would be convicted was never seriously in
doubt, but the question of larger, more remote
guilt hung over the proceedings right
up to the end. So when a five-judge tribunal
in Berlin delivered its verdict last
week, it was a stunner. Without mincing
words, the court found that the atrocious
killings of four Iranian exiles at Berlin's.
Mykonos Restaurant in 1992 had been ordered
by "the highest state levels" in Iran.
"The Iranian political leadership was
responsible," declared Judge Frithjof Kubsch,
president of the tribunal. That one
sentence vindicated all the time and care
taken by German prosecutors, for it established
the first legal, well-weighed condemnation
of the Islamic. Republic for
sponsorship of terror abroad. Even as Iranian
exiles danced and cheered outside the
courthouse, Kubscn's judgment dealt a
body blow to the policy of tender treatment
extended to Iran by Germany and, officially,
the European Union as a whole. Hunkering
down in a crisis mode, the German
Foreign. Ministry termed the Mykonos
murders "a flagrant breach of international
law." Bonn recalled its ambassador to
Tehran and expelled four Iranian diplomats,
moves that were matched exactly by
the Iranian government in calling the court
decision a "shameless act." More ominously
for Iran, Germany suspended its policy
of friendly engagement "for the foreseeable
future," suggesting that Europe may
now edge closer to America's policy of isolating
Tehran as an outlaw regime.
Different slants on Iran by the U.S. and
Europe have pricked the Atlantic partnership
for several years. However loath Bonn
was to change its policy, though, it could
not escape the court's logic. A painstaking
parade of evidence established beyond
doubt that Tehran's leadership had whis-
GREAT DAY FOR DISSIDENTS: Outside the Berlin court, Iranian exiles celebrate a verdict that
tled up a gruesome act of assassination on a convention of the Socialist International.
German soil. Said Ruprecht Polenz, a se- Sadegh Sharafkandi, the party's general
nior member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's secretary, was dining in a back room of the
Christian Democratic Union: "Sending hit Mykonos with eight other oppositionists.
teams into another country and executing Just before midnight, two men with autothe
opposition people there is barbaric and matic guns burst in screaming in Farsi,
shows that Iran does not respect basic ''You sons of whores!" They sprayed more
law." The E.U.'s 14 other countries, as well than 30 rounds into Sharafkandi, two colas
Finland and Australia, were ready to re- leagues and a translator as others dived for
call their envoys to)ran also. cover: One diner who escaped harm was
The assassinations occurred on Sept. Parviz Dastmalchi, now 48, an exiled Iran-
17, 1992, as delegates from the Democratic ian author and political analyst who lives in
Party of Kurdistan-iran were in Berlin for Berlin. "!twas terrible," he says. "We knew
TIME, APRIL 21, 1997
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