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DUBAI - Iran's judiciary today accused a German businessman of spying, only a day after he was cleared of illegal sex charges.
Helmut Hofer is now accused of having "contact with suspicious elements," the judiciary said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press in Dubai.
Iranian authorities usually use that phrase to refer to spying. The statement did not say for whom Hofer had allegedly spied.
Espionage in Iran is punishable by death. In 1997, Iran hanged two people convicted of spying for Israel and the United States.
The statement said Hofer, 56, would remain in jail until the case is resolved.
[Agence France Presse reported that: The latest twist in the case risks further souring strained relations with Tehran’s leading European trading partner Berlin.]
[Relations have been hit by Hofer’s
continuing detention and by a German court’s 1997 ruling which implicated
the highest levels of the Iranian leadership in a 1992 attack on a Berlin
restaurant which killed four Iranian Kurds.]
Mullahs’ Center Firebombed, Agence France Presse, September 30
TEHRAN - An Islamic center in Iran was set ablaze by unidentified arsonists who threw a firebomb into it, the Kayhan paper reported here Thursday.
An unspecified number of attackers smashed in the windows of the building in Najafabad, close to the central Iranian city of Isfahan, late Wednesday and lobbed in the firebomb and inflammatory materials, the paper said.
The center, which organizes weekly
Friday prayers, has been the target of numerous attacks in the past, Kayhan
added.
Iranian Hard-Liners Force Scrapping of Women's Race, Reuters, September 30
TEHRAN - Municipal authorities in the city of Isfahan have canceled a road race for women after coming under pressure from hard-line conservatives, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The race had been planned for Friday, the anniversary of the birthday of Fatima, the daughter of the Moslem Prophet Mohammad, the daily Kayhan reported.
Clerics, cultural officials and "revolutionary bodies" protested against the race the newspaper said.
Women involved in sporting events in
Iran must cover their heads and bodies in line with the country's strict
Islamic law, unless the event is held in indoors where men are not allowed
to attend.
New Viewpoint on "Inner Circle"! Iran Zamin News Agency, September 29
The daily Khordad
quoted Mohiyeddin Haeri Shirazi, Shiraz Friday Prayer leader, as saying
that the criterion for "inner circle" and "out of the circle" citizens
is the level of his/her devotion to the Leader. "Someone who is a Muslim
and observes fast and says daily prayers, but does not believe in the philosophy
of Islamic government, could not be considered an inner circle," he said.
Education Minister to Be Impeached-Paper, Iran Zamin News Agency, September 29
The daily Abrar
daily reported that a group of MPs intends to propose the impeachment motion
of minister of culture and higher education, Mostafa Moin. For the MPs,
the reason behind the motion is the minister's incapability in managing
universities and lack of controlling student political factions, which
consider themselves as the guardian of other students.
Iran's International Obligations Top $22b, State-Controlled Iran News, September 28
TEHRAN - Iran's foreign trade balance registered a deficit of $626 million in last Iranian year of 1377 (ended March 20) while the corresponding figure for 1376 showed a surplus of $4.258 million, announced a report by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) yesterday.
According to the report, the value of Iran's oil and gas exports last year amounted to $9.942 billion, showing a remarkable decrease when compared to $15.471 billion registered for 1376…
Moreover, the country's total foreign debts due stood at $13.091 billion by the end of the first quarter of the current Iranian year (i.e. period ended by June 21) which included $7.3 billion medium and long-term and about $5.8 billion short-term debts. More importantly, Iran's total foreign debts and new undertakings amounts to $22.3 billion as of the said date.