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In an interview with the state-run television, mullah Mohammad Niazi, Tehran's chief military prosecutor, who is in charge of investigating the case of recent political murders, again brazenly attributed these murders to foreign elements.
He claimed: "As the investigations have continued, the probability of foreign intervention in these murders has been reinforced."
It thus becomes clearer every day that
when the regime's leaders speak of "investigating" and pursuing this case,
they have no objective other than concealing their own role in the killings
and preserve the Intelligence Ministry's apparatus of terror and murder.
18 Slain in Kurdish Protests in Iran, Agence France Presse, February 23
NICOSIA - At least 18 people have been killed and nearly 300 arrested in demonstrations in Sanandaj, the main city in Iranian Kurdistan, the People's Mujahedeen, the main armed Iranian opposition group, said Tuesday.
The casualties included dozens wounded Monday "in an attack by members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and the state security force on a demonstration of tens of thousands of people in Sanandaj," the group said in a statement.
"At least 270 people have been arrested so far and the arrests are still continuing," the People's Mujahedeen said.
"A de facto state of martial law is
presently in place," they said.
Mullahs' Media On "Islamic Councils" Elections, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 23
State Controlled Kayhan, February 20 - The Governor of Qom and the Director of Qom's "Islamic Councils'" elections were forced to resign because he refused to carry out an illegal directive.
According to our corespondent's report, higher authorities had urged Haji-zadeh, the governor of the city of Qom, to include in the ballot the names of a number of the candidates rejected by the election's executive and supervisory boards. Haji-zadeh said this was an infraction of the regulations and did not carry out the order.
Jomhouri Islami, February 20 - The Interior Ministry and the Governor of Qom province had forced the city governor to include in the ballot the name of a number of the candidates whose competence had been rejected. Citing the decision by the election's executive supervisory boards, the city governor had said the inclusion of these names would be against the regulations.
Tehran Friday prayers sermon, February 19 - Mullah Ahmad Jannati, Secretary of the Council of Guardians: "Another issue before us is the councils. The elections for "Islamic Councils" will be held on February 26. There has been a lot of talk about these councils and there is room for more debates. It would be a source of great concern if, God forbid, these posts were taken over by those who are ambitious, pursue personal objectives, factional interests, and political objectives and by those who are not interested in serving people and intend to use their position as a spring board for a higher post.
"If this were to happen, then instead
of becoming a source of service to the people, the councils would become
a calamity for the people. The elected official wants to work for himself,
for his own interests and those of his group. But what about the people?
This would create a big problem."
Iran's Conservatives Maintain Hold on Key Electoral Council, Agence France Presse, February 23
TEHRAN - Iran's conservatives demonstrated their continuing stranglehold on one of the Islamic Republic's key institutions Tuesday with the reelection of conservative cleric Ali Meshkini to the chairmanship of the Council of Experts.
Meshkini, 74, was reelected by 66 votes out of 85 at the council's first full session since nationwide elections last October, the official news agency IRNA reported.
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Ali Amini won election with 75 and 59 votes respectively to serve as vice chairmen of the council, which is responsible for electing and, if need be, dismissing the country's supreme leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, who resigned as intelligence minister earlier this month after his ministry's admission that "rogue" agents were involved in a string of brutal murders of dissidents late last year, was elected as secretary.