Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basm Oz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
o p E<br />
ons with the Islamic state<br />
threatened<br />
to turn some screws on Tehran<br />
of such executions from books and articles,<br />
but it's a compl<strong>et</strong>ely different story when it<br />
happens to you."<br />
The inquiry played out like a <strong>de</strong>tective<br />
novel. Tipped off by fe<strong>de</strong>ral intelligence<br />
agents, German police fairly quickly<br />
roun<strong>de</strong>d up five of the eight men suspected<br />
of carrying out the mur<strong>de</strong>rs: one Iranian<br />
and four Lebanese; the three others had<br />
fled Germany. After similar acts of mayhem<br />
in which the hand of Iran's lea<strong>de</strong>rship<br />
had left fingerprints, European governments<br />
either balked at following the trail of<br />
evi<strong>de</strong>nce or allowed suspects<br />
to go free. Prosecutors<br />
in the Berlin case were ma<strong>de</strong><br />
of sterner stuff. "At the beginning,<br />
the state prosecutors<br />
were told by the government,<br />
'Four <strong>de</strong>ad, five<br />
suspects, that should be<br />
enough,' " says a source close<br />
to the case. It was not<br />
enough. As chief prosecutor<br />
Bruno Jost's investigation<br />
procee<strong>de</strong>d, German intelligence<br />
agencies opened their<br />
classified files. Then, last autumn,<br />
appeared the anonymous<br />
''Witness C": later<br />
i<strong>de</strong>ntified as Abolhassan<br />
Mesbahi, 34, a former senior<br />
Iranian agent who had <strong>de</strong>fected.<br />
He implicated the<br />
regime with <strong>de</strong>tailed testimony<br />
on mechanics of the<br />
assassination plot.<br />
What the mounting evi<strong>de</strong>nce portrayed,<br />
with a clear trail of weapons supply<br />
and chain of command, was a machinery of<br />
vengeance so elaborate as to seem an obsession<br />
of state. By the time German prosecutors<br />
issued an international arrest warrant<br />
for Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali<br />
Fallahian a year ago, the smooth Fallahian<br />
had already incriminated himselfby boasting<br />
on Iranian TV of Tehran's ability to <strong>de</strong>al<br />
"<strong>de</strong>cisive blows" against Kurdish opponents<br />
abroad. His remark was recor<strong>de</strong>d a<br />
few weeks before the Mykonos hit.<br />
"The United States doesnot need to be<br />
convinced about Iran's role in supporting<br />
terrorism internationally," <strong>de</strong>clared U.S.<br />
State Department spokesman Nicholas<br />
Burns, who urged Europe to "choke off<br />
tra<strong>de</strong> with Iran." Such a step looked highly<br />
improbable. Germany did more than $1.4<br />
billion worth of business with the Islamic<br />
Republic last year, and has exten<strong>de</strong>d it $4.8<br />
billion in loans. Y<strong>et</strong> the E.U.'s policy of<br />
"critical dialogue" -constructive engagement<br />
by another name-may take on a<br />
sharper edge. "We think that this critical<br />
dialogue should be more critical and a lot<br />
less dialogue," said a U.S. official.<br />
According to Western intelligence<br />
agencies, Iran has for years used its embassy<br />
in Bonn as Terror Central, where hit<br />
squads packaged European operations or<strong>de</strong>red<br />
by Tehran. Weapons, fake i<strong>de</strong>ntity<br />
papers and visas for the assassins would arrive<br />
at the embassy by diplomatic pouch. In<br />
the Mykonos case, Fallahian was indicted<br />
for hiring Kazem Darabi, an ex-agent of<br />
the Iranian spy agency VEVAK who ran a<br />
food and clothing store in Berlin. Darabi in<br />
turn recruited Abbas Rhaye~ 30, and three<br />
DEADLY NIGHT OUT: The Mykonos back room after the<br />
shootInp, which were tnK:ked to "highest state levels"<br />
other Lebanese. Darabi and Rhayel, the<br />
accused gunmen, were sentenced to life.<br />
Youssef Amin, who turned state's evi<strong>de</strong>nce,<br />
received 11 years and Mohamed<br />
Atris five years, three months. One <strong>de</strong>fendant,<br />
Atallah Ayed, was acquitted.<br />
Based on insi<strong>de</strong>rs' testimony of how assassination<br />
planning worked, the court,<br />
without naming names, conclu<strong>de</strong>d that the<br />
regime of Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Rafsanjani and Iran's<br />
supreme spiritual lea<strong>de</strong>r, Ayatullah Ali<br />
Khamenei, approved the mur<strong>de</strong>rs. What<br />
role Rafsanjani plays exactly in such plotting<br />
is still <strong>de</strong>bated in the West, but at the<br />
least he appears to be hostage to a small y<strong>et</strong><br />
powerful clique supported by radical mullahs.<br />
During the Berlin trial, witnesses received<br />
anonymous <strong>de</strong>ath threats and warnings<br />
about car acci<strong>de</strong>nts involving their<br />
children. Kohl's intelligence adviser,<br />
Bernd Schmidbauer, testified that Fallahian<br />
himself, in a 1993 visit to Bonn, had<br />
urged him to drop the prosecution.<br />
Germany's Foreign Ministry had reason<br />
to brace for possible trouble. Tehran<br />
crowds surroun<strong>de</strong>d the German embassy<br />
late last year when Khamenei's and Rafsanjani's<br />
names were cited in court. They<br />
pelted the embassy with stones, eggs and<br />
tomatoes and, provocatively, displayed<br />
blown-up photos of blindfol<strong>de</strong>d u.s. embassy<br />
hostages during the 1979-81 crisis. A<br />
threat to do the same? Possibly, but Iran<br />
would have few friends left in<strong>de</strong>ed ifooit<br />
went that far. Though Rafsanjani probably<br />
would like to cool the crisis, Iran may find<br />
it hard to control the <strong>de</strong>mons ofhatred that<br />
the regime itself had l<strong>et</strong> loose. -Reporled<br />
by Jordan Bontante/Bonn, Scott Macleod/<strong>Paris</strong>,<br />
Aleandra Sflglnuryer/Berlln .nd DougIn<br />
W.,Ier/Wahington<br />
TIME, APRIL 21, 1997<br />
269