| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Austrian Justice Ministry denies investigation against Ahmadinejad |
| 2005-07-06 |
| VIENNA - The Justice Ministry denied on Wednesday that inquiries are underway against Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in relation to the murders of three Iranian Kurds in Vienna in 1989. The ministry said that the state prosecutorâs office was only investigating whether a so-called âWitness Dâ, who made allegations against Ahmadinejad, in fact existed. The witness had been named by Austrian opposition Greens specialist in security questions, Peter Pilz, on Tuesday. Pilz said he had handed information on to the Austrian authorities for investigation. Pilz said that âDâ, a former journalist in Teheran who later fled to France, accused the president-elect of having belonged to a three- member âoperations commandoâ which committed the murders of Iranian- Kurdish leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and two other Kurds on July 13, 1989. âDâ said his source was another presumed member of the commando, Nasser Taghipour, who later became General of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran). Pilz said that âDâ could have only had his âabsolutely correct insider informationâ from a direct participant in the crime. On Tuesday, Austrian Ambassador Michael Stigelbauer was summoned to the Teheran Foreign Ministry over the reports linking Ahmadinejad with the 1989 murders. âWe called the Austrian ambassador in on Tuesday to give an explanation,â said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. General Director of the ministry Rahim Pur accused Austria of anti-Iranian propaganda, and demanded an explanation of how the reports appeared. As well as Pilz, recent press reports in the Czech Republic and Austria have charged Ahmadinejad with involvement. No-one has ever been arrested for the murders. In 1989, under apparent Iranian pressure, the suspects were allowed out of Austria unscathed. One of them even had a police escort to Vienna airport. Last week, the Prague newspaper Pravo said Ahmadinejad was allegedly involved in the Ghassemlou murders. The president-elect had previously also been accused by other sources of involvement in the 1979 occupation of the US embassy in Teheran. He denies any implication in either event. Pravo quoted an informed source as saying that Ahmadinejad was a high-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) in western Iran, and was responsible for âstorm operations abroadâ. âA few days before the murder of Ghassemlou, he was in Vienna, and his task was to give the weapons from the Iranian embassy to the murder commando,â the report said. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 In 1989, under apparent Iranian pressure, the suspects were allowed out of Austria unscathed. One of them even had a police escort to Vienna airport. I guess we can save the postage on any coalition invitations to Austria. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-06 12:07 |