The state-run radio and television broadcast an interview yesterday with Tehran's chief military prosecutor mullah Mohammad Niazi who said: "Those accused of having committed the mysterious murders... are not in any way affiliated with any of the political groups and factions... The involvement of the hidden and foreign hands in these murders has not been ruled out. It has rather been strengthened."

The clerical regime is thus trying once again to exonerate the regime's leaders, the Intelligence Ministry and the ruling factions from having been involved in the recent political killings in Tehran, blaming them instead on "hidden and foreign hands."

Mullah Niazi emphasized that the committee investigating the mysterious murders, appointed by the mullahs' President, Khatami, and endorsed by Supreme Leader, Khamenei, cooperates closely with the Military Prosecutor's Office in this case. Earlier, despite different evidence and admissions, Khatami's committee had denied any involvement by the regime's political factions in the killings.

It becomes clear that what has been undertaken under the guise of investigating these murders, is merely an attempt to conceal the role of the regime's leaders and keep intact the Intelligence Ministry's murder machine and the Guards Corps which have masterminded and perpetrated the killings.

The Iranian Resistance, therefore, urges intervention by the international community and the United Nations as well as the prosecution of the regime's leaders as enemies of humanity in an international tribunal. The clerical regime and Khatami's government lack competence or legitimacy to carry out these investigations. It is imperative that relevant international delegations, accompanied by representatives of the Iranian Resistance, intervene in this case.
 
 

Dissidents' Killers Posed As Film-Makers, Reuter, January 21

TEHRAN - The men who murdered veteran political figure Forouhar had gained their victim's confidence by saying they wanted to make a film of him, an Iranian prosecutor said in remarks published on Thursday.

Tehran military prosecutor Mohammad Niazi said the killers had gone to Forouhar's Tehran home in November together with a trusted friend of the dissident, and proposed to make a film showing how modestly he lived, newspapers reported.

Sporadic clashes broke out in Tehran on Thursday between dozens of hardliners and a group of youths who were among a few thousand people attending an event marking the death of a liberal Islamist opposition politician four years ago.

"Death to despotism," chanted the youths. Riot police dispersed the crowd.
 
 

Tehran Police Use Force to Disperse Opposition Rally, Agence France Presse, January 21

TEHRAN -Tehran police forcibly dispersed thousands of people commemorating the anniversary Thursday of the death of former Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan.

Police intervened at the end of a ceremony at Hosseinieh-Ershad mosque in northern Tehran after 10,000 people poured into the streets.

"Death to despotism ... freedom, security, these are our slogans," shouted the crowd, made up mostly of young people.
 
 

Hard-Liners Threaten Cleric, Associated Press, January 20

TEHRAN - Hard-liners have threatened suicide attacks against a Shiite Muslim cleric for supporting a religious leader who has questioned the clergy's right to rule Iran, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The hard-line Hezbollah of Isfahan group threatened to "carry out its political, revolutionary and religious duty, even to the point of martyrdom" against Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri, according to comments published in the daily Asr-e-Azadegan newspaper.

The group was apparently angered by a prayer service Taheri led in the city of Isfahan in favor of Grand Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, who was once expected to become Iran's supreme religious leader but was cast aside after he openly criticized the hard-line rule of the clerics.

The prayer service was attended by about 70,000 people. Critics of Taheri disrupted the service by heckling and throwing an iron bar and other objects at the senior cleric.

Afterward, several of Montazeri's supporters were arrested after they shouted slogans in his favor, The Tehran Times reported. The prayers were held to mark Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim feast at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

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