The clerical regime's newspapers reported that the Tehran-based daily, Arya, "has been ordered to cease publication on the personal orders of the President and the speedy intervention of the Minister of Islamic Guidance after it published an article on the massacre of political prisoners in 1988."

Arya had written on March 4, 2000: "The main way to tackle the issue of (chain political murders) is to go to the past and open the file of the large-scale execution of political prisoners in summer 1988.

Another Tehran journal, Gozaresh, further elaborated on the issue on April 8: "The article (in Arya) referred to the fatwa issued by His Eminence the Imam (Khomeini) after Operation Mersad (the Mojahedin's large-scale offensive). The Imam ordered the authorities to issue execution sentences in accordance with Sharia for all Mojahedin prisoners and infidels who are still insisting on their opposition to the state and their support for the Mojahedin."

The English-language daily, Iran News, wrote on April 9: "Officials were astonished to see that these prisoners were still insisting on fighting the state and supporting the Mojahedin." The daily added: "The death sentences were issued when President Mohammad Khatami was the deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces for ideological and cultural issues. He used to implement Imam Khomeini's verdicts in the most serious manner."

Khatami's personal orders to shut down a newspaper for a mere mention of the massacre of political prisoners show once again that he, like other ruling mullahs, is frightened of the exposure of the clerical regime's crimes even in the most limited manner, for Khatami, as one of the highest ranking officials of the regime, has been involved in all the crimes of the past twenty years.
 

Mojahedin Report Attack by Tehran Against Their Bases, Reuters, April 10

BAGHDAD - Iraq said on Monday that two bases belonging to the main Iranian exile group Mujahideen Khalq came under mortar fire which members said had come from Iran.

Farid Sulaimani, spokesman for the Mujahideen in Baghdad, said that Iran was behind the assault. "Yes the terrorists came from Iran and they were sent by the mullahs' regime in Tehran," he told reporters.

He said that one of the group's camps had been attacked by mortars and another by missiles.

Mojahedin, which opposes the Tehran government, has several bases equipped with tanks, heavy guns and helicopter gunships close to the Iranian border.

"We sustained no casualties or material damage, but there was some damage to Iraqi civilians' property," Sulaimani said.

The Mujahideen said their anti-aircraft systems last week repulsed an air attack by Iran against one of their military bases inside Iraq.
 

Jail Sentence on Pro-Khatami Editor Upheld by Cleric Court, Reuters, April 10

TEHRAN - An Iranian editor who challenged the Islamic law of retribution was jailed on Monday after losing an appeal against a 30-month sentence imposed for criticizing capital punishment.

Mashallah Shamsolvaezin was jailed for offending religious values after the appeal court upheld the sentence imposed by a hardline press court.

The special press court charged the editor with questioning the Islamic law of retribution, summed up in the injunction "an eye for an eye."

"I am saddened by the fact that a prominent journalist is being sent to prison...(but) I can not do anything for him," Mohajerani [Khatami's Culture Minister] told a news conference.

In a recent open letter to Khatami, Shamsolvaezin appealed for protection from hardliners' pressure.

"Either tell us that our press activities are illegal... or tell us clearly from which government body we are to get the minimum of political and professional security to continue our work," he said in the letter.
 

Mullahs' Top Body Bars Parliamentary Probe, Associated Press, April 10

TEHRAN - An advisory body has ruled that Parliament cannot probe organizations supervised by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including the armed forces, a newspaper reported Monday.

The decision by the Expediency Council appears to be an effort by hard-liners in the ruling clergy to tighten their grip on power and keep the newly elected reformist Parliament under control.

The Expediency Council, led by former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, advises the supreme leader on state affairs and arbitrates disputes between Parliament and the Guardians Council. 

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