The ceremony began at 3 p.m. with a minute of silence and the Muslim traditional recital of Quran. The message by the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi was followed by several Iranian, French and Arab personalities who paid tribute to the memory of Zahra Rajabi. Messages of solidarity from other dignitaries and organizations were subsequently read, including the messages of Mr. Michel Rocard, former French Prime Minister and member of the European Parlliament; Mr. George Sarres, former deputy minister for roads and transportation and mayor of District 11 of Paris; Mr. Jean Jacques Kirkyacharian, President of the Movement against racism and for friendship among peoples (MRAP); Committee to defend liberties and human rights in France and in the world; and Mrs. Elizabeth Doussain, Socialist Party candidate for parliament.
Zahra Rajabi, 39, was gunned down on February 20, 1996, in Istanbul by a hit squad sent from Tehran and commanded by the mullahs' consular secretary in that city. She had arrived in Turkey several days earlier at the head of a delegation which attended to the problems of Iranian refugees in that country.
Three weeks ago, the Criminal Court of Istanbul condemned an Iranian Intelligence Ministry agent to 33 years imprisonment for complicity in the murder of Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi. He confessed that the assassination had been plotted by the Intelligence Ministry of the mullahs' regime in Tehran.
The mourners who were lead by Mrs. Rajabi's parents and sisters, carried placards condemning the Khomeini regime's terrorism. They blamed the highest officials of the mullahs' regime for direct involvement in the murder of Iranian dissidents abroad and heavily attacked the policy of Critical Dialogue pursued by Europe.
In the past year, the number of victims of the mullahs' terrorism reached 32 showing a four fold increase. Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi were the first two in this list. The latest terrorist operation of the mullahs' regime took place on January 8, when three 320mm super mortars sent from Iran fired at the headquarters of the People's Mojahedin in Baghdad, killing one and wounding dozens of Iraqi civilians and inflicting heavy damages on hospitals and buildings in the area.
The demonstrators announced that the trade pacts signed with Iran's ruling mullahs are stained with the blood of countless people. Every form of economic or diplomatic support and relations helps the mullahs' regime in further pursuit of its terrorism abroad and suppression inside the country.
Participants in this demonstration concluded the ceremony by pledging to continue the work of Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi, relentlessly until the overthrow of the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship and establishment of democracy in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
February 14, 1997
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