VIENNA, Austria — Austrian authorities have
classified documents suggesting that Iran's
president-elect may have played a key role in the
1989 execution-style slayings of an Iranian Kurdish
leader and two associates in Vienna, a newspaper
reported today.
Austria's Interior Ministry and the public
prosecutor's office are investigating alleged
evidence pointing to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's possible
involvement in the attack, the daily Der Standard
reported.
Officials were not immediately available to comment
on the report today. |
Ex.
Kurdish Leader Dr.Abdul-Rahman Qasimlo 1989 ┼
Photo: Kurd Net Archive |
|
Pilz
accused the hard-liner of planning the murders of
Kurdish resistance leader Abdul-Rahman Ghassemlou
and two of his colleagues, all of whom were shot in
the head at a Vienna apartment by Iranian commandos
on July 13, 1989. A fourth victim survived the
attack and was able to crawl out of the apartment
and alert Austrian authorities.
Pilz told Der Standard his source was an
unidentified Iranian journalist living in France,
who he said also claimed to have evidence that
former Iranian President Ayatollah Hashemi
Rafsanjani gave the order to have Ghassemlou killed.
He did not elaborate.
He said Ahmadinejad, then a high-ranking member of
Iran's elite revolutionary guard, allegedly traveled
to the Austrian capital a few days before the
slayings to deliver the murder weapons to the
commandos who carried out the attack. Austrian
authorities have said the gunmen apparently entered
the alpine country with Iranian diplomatic
passports.
Pilz said the journalist was contacted in 2001 by
one of the alleged gunmen, described as a former
revolutionary guard who has since died in a drowning
accident.
"The descriptions of the informant contained details
of the scene (of the slayings) which could only have
come from someone who was there," Pilz said. He said
the gunman's account, which included "very
convincing" evidence implicating Ahmadinejad, was
turned over at the time to Austria's federal
counterterrorism agency.
Prague's Pravo newspaper reported similar
allegations on Friday, quoting Hossein Jazdan Panah,
an exiled Kurdish opposition member, as saying
Ahmadinejad "was in charge of hit operations abroad"
at the time of the Vienna killings.
Ghassemlou, the gunmen's principle target, was
secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan. His delegation had been in Vienna for
secret talks with envoys from the Tehran regime.
The gunmen managed to slip out of Austria after the
attack and were never arrested.
Pilz's Green Party pressed unsuccessfully in 1997
for the creation of a special parliamentary inquiry
to look into a possible cover-up by Austrian
officials, who it believes bowed to pressure from
Iran's government and allowed the commandos to leave
Austria, allegedly providing them a police escort to
Vienna's international airport. Those allegations
have never been proven.
On Friday, the United States said it would not be
surprised if Ahmadinejad turns out to have been a
main participant in the holding of American hostages
in Tehran a quarter-century ago, although the Bush
administration cautioned that it was still trying to
determine the facts.
Five former U.S. hostages who saw Ahmadinejad in
photographs or on television said they believe he
was among the hostage-takers. One said he was
interrogated by Ahmadinejad.
"I don't think it should be surprising to anyone if
it turns out to be true," White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said in Washington. "This is a
regime run by an unelected few that only allowed its
hand-picked candidates to run in an election that
was well short of free and fair.''
AP
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