Mullah Sane'i: Fatwa to murder Rushdie will be carried out

On the 11th anniversary of the fatwa to murder Salman Rushdie, Hassan Sane'i, Khamenei's personal representative and the head of the state-controlled 15th of Khordad Foundation, announced: "The thought of eliminating Salman Rushdie is alive. Only the opportune moment must arise... Rest assured that this fatwa will some day be carried out and protective and security measures will not save Rushdie." The 15th of Khordad Foundation has set a 2.8 million dollar bounty for Rushdie's head.

In an advertisement published on October 11 in the state-controlled daily Qods, the Foundation declared that it is "one of the official and revolutionary institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, formed in June 1981 upon direct orders of the founder of the Islamic Republic, His Eminence Imam Khomeini."

Moreover, the regime's Court of Administrative Justice considers cases filed against "revolutionary institutions" as "cases filed against the government." According to the law dealing with the government's second five-year-plan, item D of Article 22, laws applicable to all government ministries also apply to this foundation.

Speaking to Jomhouri-Islami daily on February 14, Sane'i said: "In an Islamic government, politics and diplomacy must be under the command of religious law."

Yesterday, the Revolutionary Guards Corps also announced that the fatwa to murder Rushdie cannot be rescinded.

These comments demonstrate palpably that the Cook-Kharrazi accord last September was merely a dirty deal and a cover for expanding trade ties and that as far as the Rushdie matter is concerned, nothing has changed.

With the escalation of the regime's internal feuding and the expansion of public protests, the clerical regime is in greater need of exporting terrorism and fundamentalism.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 15, 1999

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