In a bid to overshadow the clashes between Mojahedin fighters and the combined forces of the Revolutionary Guards and Intelligence Ministry agents in the provinces of Ilam, Lorestan and Khuzistan, Intelligence Minister Ali Younessi claimed today that "the perpetrators of the assassination of Lt. Gen. Sayyad Shirazi have been identified and arrested in southern Iran."

A spokesman for the Mojahedin Command HQ inside Iran said: This claim is a sheer lie. The operational units that punished Lt. Gen. Sayyad Shirazi, who was notorious as a mass murderer of Mojahedin and was nicknamed "the Butcher of Kurdistan" are all safe and sound and unharmed.

The Mojahedin Command HQ inside Iran stated in a June 17 press release that several Intelligence Ministry agents were killed or wounded and a Mojahedin fighter was slain in clashes between June 9 and June 16.
 
 

Rajavi: Mullahs’ Leaders Murder a Main Actor in "Political Killings", Iran Zamin News Agency, June 21

Following today’s announcement by the mullahs’ regime that one of the "principal elements" involved in a string of political murders "committed suicide" in prison, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, commented on this matter.

He said: ... This ridiculous scenario concocted by the mullahs deceives no one in Iran. Khatami has made a dirty deal with Khamenei and has used the issue of political killings to gain concessions and win a greater share of power for himself.

Mr. Rajavi said: As the Iranian Resistance has repeatedly underlined in the past, and as the Mykonos trial in Germany revealed, the Supreme National Security Council of the mullahs’ regime, now chaired by Khatami, is politically and legally responsible and accountable for these atrocities.
 
 

Dead Suspect in Political Murders Was Top Agent, Reuters, June 21

TEHRAN - A key suspect in a series of murders of Iranian dissidents and intellectuals, who committed suicide in prison over the weekend, was a top intelligence agent, newspapers said on Monday.

Saeed Emami was accused of masterminding the killings late last year of four political figures and dissident writers.

Judicial officials said he had killed himself on Saturday by drinking a "hair-removing" solution while taking a bath in prison.

Several officials, lawyers and newspapers criticized the authorities for what they called lax security around Emami, and said his death may have ended the chance of learning the truth.

"I was in Evin prison for three months. In a solitary cell, there is no possibility to kill oneself. A guard looks into the cell every half hour. Inmates can only take a bath once a week for five minutes and they are closely watched," wrote Akbar Ganji of the daily Sobh-e Emrouz.

Salam daily said Emami, known in security circles as Saeed Eslami, had served for years as a deputy intelligence minister.

Emami, who was a student in the United States, had returned to Iran two years after the 1979 Islamic revolution to work for the country's intelligence apparatus, newspapers said.

He moved up the ranks of the ministry under former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahiyan, who is sought by German authorities for his alleged role in the 1992 murders of Kurdish dissidents in Berlin.
 
 

Khatami's Government Says Stay Out of Jewish Arrests Case, Reuters, June 21

TEHRAN - Iran said on Monday it would not accept meddling by France or other Western countries in the case of Iranian Jews arrested for allegedly spying for Israel.

Two influential Iranian clerics have served notice that the Jews may be hanged. One of them said on Friday they had passed secrets to Israel through third countries, including Turkey.

"The concerns of certain countries on this issue are irrelevant. Iran rejects remarks by the foreign minister of France...in this regard," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said today.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said on Sunday the arrest of the Jews, made several months ago, was intolerable and that he had summoned Iran's ambassador to express France's anger.

Simon Samuels, head of the Paris-based International Liaison office of the Simon Wiesenthal center, urged French President Jacques Chirac to impose economic sanctions on Tehran.

Samuels said he had also written to Total (TOTF.PA) oil company asking it to freeze a $660 million oilfield investment and to ELF (ELF.PA) asking it to halt talks on oil development in Iran.

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