Trial at 7th branch of Criminal Tribunal of Istanbul:
Mullahs' Foreign Ministry Committee threatens to severe economic and diplomatic ties with Turkey
Two international observers attend Friday's session to observe due process of law

A Foreign Ministry Committee negotiated at least four times with officials of the Turkish embassy in Tehran to examine all the political and security aspects of the case of murder of Mrs. Zahra Rajabi and Mr. Ali Moradi and influence the legal proceedings, reliable reports from within the clerical regime say.

Mrs. Zahra Rajabi, a leading member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and Mr. Ali Moradi, a sympathizer of the Iranian Resistance, were murdered February 20, 1996 in Istanbul by Intelligence Ministry agents dispatched from Tehran and with direct involvement of the regime's terrorist diplomats of the Consulate in Istanbul. One of the murderers has confessed that Mohsen Kargar Azad, Consular Secretary in Istanbul, commanded the fire squad.

Mir Mahmoud Moussavi, director general for West Asian affairs, heads the Foreign Ministry Committee whose members are Motahhar, secretary of the National Security Council and head of the regime's Joint Security Committee with Turkey, a representative from the Ministry of Intelligence, as well as a representative from Rafsanjani's office. The Committee has threatened the government of Turkey with revision of all its economic, political and security relations with that country should the court verdict be "a wrong position in favor of our enemy."

The mullahs' regime has used every political and economic means, including in Rafsanjani's visit to Turkey, to acquit its Intelligence Ministry agents from punishment and prevent indictment of the regime's leaders in the course of the trial.

Dozens of parliamentarians and human rights organizations, have sent letters to the President of Turkey (copies of which have been directed to the NCR) and asked Mr. Demirel to immediately intervene to guarantee the due process of law in the trial of the murderers of the Iranian Resistance's activists.

Mr. Michael Ellman, from the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, and Mr. Keith Handle, from the UN Association in the UK, have traveled to Turkey to oversee the court proceedings on Friday at the 7th branch of the Criminal Tribunal of Istanbul.

The Iranian Resistance condemns the mullahs' dirty blackmail. It calls on the Turkish government and Judiciary not to cave in to the pressures, punish the murderers of Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi, and summon the regime's ambassador and Consul in Turkey to explain about the role of the regime's terrorist diplomats in this atrocity.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
January 24, 1997

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