WASHINGTON - The State Department on Tuesday condemned the assassination of Iranian Brig. Gen. Ali Sayyad Shirazi and said perpetrators of the crime should be "brought to justice."

Shirazi was deputy chief of the joint staff command of the Iranian armed forces.
 

Turning A Blind Eye to Atrocities Perpetrated by Clerical Regime and Crimes of Sayyad Shirazi, State Department Spokesman Emboldens Mullahs, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 13

A Mojahedin spokesman described the US State Department spokesman's condemnation of the bringing to justice of Ali Sayyad Shirazi, the butcher of Kurdistan, the murderer of the Mojahedin and responsible for purging and executing patriotic personnel of the Armed Forces, as an abhorrent position, which blatantly turns a blind eye to the atrocities perpetrated by the mullahs' anti-human regime.

In a statement released by the Mojahedin Press Office in Washington, DC, its spokesman stressed that "the terrorist mullahs ruling Iran will take this position as a green light to launch air strikes or missile attacks against the bases of the Iranian Resistance on Iraqi territory.

"The US State Department Spokesman has called for the prosecution of those who brought Sayyad Shirazi to justice at a time when not even once has the State Department addressed the need to prosecute the murderers of 120,000 political prisoners, those responsible for the assassination of hundreds of Iranian dissidents abroad or even those involved in the recent political murders to which the Intelligence Ministry admitted," the statement quoted the spokesman as saying.

PMI statement added that "what is more despicable is the fact that the US State Department Spokesman has recognized the clerical regime's judicial system, which is but an apparatus of torture, execution and massacre of political prisoners - a matter frequently raised in reports by international human rights organs and even in the annual human rights report of the US State Department."

The spokesman said that silence by the US State Department Spokesman vis-a-vis the crimes perpetrated by Sayyad Shirazi, demonstrates palpably the political motives behind, and the biased nature of his position against the Mojahedin.

The Mojahedin spokesman recalled that contrary to the views expressed by Mr. Foley, a Congressional majority declared, in September 1998, that labeling the People's Mojahedin - a legitimate resistance movement - as "terrorist," was against the spirit of the law.
 

Teenage Cartoonist May Face Court for Drawing, Reuters, April 10

TEHRAN - A teenage cartoonist could be prosecuted in Iran for a drawing that allegedly insulted the country's Islamic laws and was in part responsible for the closing of a newspaper, reports said.

An Islamic revolutionary court ordered the daily Zan closed on Tuesday after it had published the cartoon.

The cartoon shows a thief holding a couple at gunpoint. The husband advises the gunman to shoot his wife as he would have to pay less blood money.
 
 

Judiciary Chief Calls for Clampdown on Women's Dress, Agence France Presse, April 9

TEHRAN - Iran's judiciary chief Mohammad Yazdi called for a government clampdown Friday on the increasing relaxation of the strict dress code for women imposed following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

[Reuters quoted Yazdi: "How should we deal with them? With arms, in a military way? Should we cause trouble and turn wedding parties into nightmares?'' referring to raids by vice squads which often break into houses and arrest party guests.

["Don't show your fancy stockings or fashionable shoes,'' Yazdi urged women. Iran's conservatives often warn that vice is on the rise in the country.]
 
 

Top Officials Warn Press, Agence France Presse, April 9

TEHRAN - Senior Iranian officials said Friday that the Zan newspaper was closed for committing a "counterrevolutionary act" and warned the Iranian press against violating the regime's "sacred values."

Ali Movahedi Kermani, deputy speaker of the parliament, warned at Friday prayers in the capital that Iranian journalists should "know their country well." "This is a country with a religious population, martyrs' families and people devoted to the revolution," said Movahedi-Kermani, the personal representative in the Revolutionary Guard of Iran's supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

"People can put up with price increases, but will never tolerate violations of their religion's sacred values," he said, referring to Zan.

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