Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, urged French President Jacques Chirac to cancel an invitation to mullah Mohammad Khatami to visit France. In a letter sent to the Elysée Palace this morning, Mr. Rajavi called Khatami’s planned visit "an act against the supreme interests of the Iranian people, which would encourage the mullahs to continue suppression and export of terrorism."

Mr. Rajavi emphasized that Khatami’s visit to France is also backed by the clerical regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, despite the raging power struggle within the ruling hierarchy, because the political and economic dividends of such a visit bolster a faltering regime whose No. 1 is Khamenei.

Mr. Rajavi referred to Khatami’s direct role in the suppression of the July uprising and wrote: "Without a shred of doubt, Khatami is not a man of reform or change. His sole mission is to save the religious fascism ruling Iran from its inevitable downfall."
 

Court Indicts Khatami’s Advisor, Reuters, October 11

TEHRAN - A clerical court in Iran indicted a pro-Khatami figure on Monday on dissent charges, threatening to derail his campaign for parliamentary elections, sources at his newspaper said.

The court ordered Abdollah Nouri, a close adviser to Khatami, to appear next week to answer the political and religious charges, the sources said.

Nouri faces charges of insulting leaders of the Islamic system and backing ties with the United States.

"We smell conspiracy and animosity from the general content of (his) newspaper and there is no other choice but to believe that these are done with malice and forethought," the sources quoted the Special Court for Clergy's indictment as saying.

Other charges included backing Hossein Ali Montazeri, a top dissident theologian living under house arrest, and questioning Islamic principles.
 

Authorities Hold Female Editor of Tabloid, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Reuters, October 11

TEHRAN – Mullahs’ authorities have arrested the editor of a tabloid weekly and summoned the editor-in-chief of a leading newspaper on various charges, Iran's media reported on Monday.

Newspapers said Jaleh Oskoui, editor of Panjshanbeh-ha was held after she appeared in court to answer a dozen charges raised against her weekly. It was a rare case of a woman editor being arrested in Iran.

The main charges against the tabloid were linked to its coverage of the controversy over the publication by a student newsletter of a play deemed offensive to a holy Shi'ite Moslem figure.

The official news agency IRNA said a military court summoned Abbas Salimi-Namin, editor-in-chief of the English-language Tehran Times, for "divulging confidential material and publishing...lies" about last year's killings of dissidents.
 

No Release in Sight For German Businessman, Agence France Presse, October 11

TEHRAN - German businessman Helmut Hofer will not be freed Monday, an Iranian judge said despite a verdict imposing a 35,000-dollar fine for an alleged affair with a Muslim Iranian woman.

"Hofer will not be freed today nor in the immediate future," defense lawyer Nasser Taheri quoted the judge as saying.

"I don’t think he’s going to be released in the next few days or even within a week," Taheri added.
 

Citing Husband’s Remarks, CNN Correspondent Recommended Not To Visit Iran, State-Controlled Tehran Times, October 10

TEHRAN - The American CNN’s Correspondent Christina Amanpour was denied visa to Iran, an official at the Guidance Ministry in charge of foreign media said yesterday.

The source, talking to the TEHRAN TIMES, said, "Ms. Amanpour applied for a visa at the Iranian Embassy in London, but her application was turned down." She was supposed to be in Tehran on October 13, the source said, adding that she was denied visa because of a threatening statement made by her husband, the U.S. State Department Spokesman James Rubin, against Iran.

The source added that following Rubin’s threat against Iran, Amanpour was recommended by the Iranian officials not to visit Iran.

Rubin, on Oct. 3, listed some options against Iran including "possible ... U.S. military action."

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