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Austria: Authorities deny probing Iran's
president-elect
7.7.2005
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Vienna, 7 July (AKI) - Austria's justice ministry
has denied reports that the country's judiciary is
probing allegations that Iran's president elect,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was involved in the 1989
killings in Vienna of an Iranian Kurdish dissident
leader and his two aides.
The ministry, in a statement issued late on
Wednesday, said that the state prosecutor's office
in the Austrian capital was not investigating
Ahmadinejad, but that it was trying to establish if
a witness, who it has been claimed made the
allegations, actually existed. |
Ex.
Kurdish Leader Dr.Abdul-Rahman Qasimlo 1989 ┼
Photo: Kurd Net Archive |
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On
Tuesday, an Austrian Green MP, Peter Pilz, said he
had received information implicating Ahmadinejad in
the murders from someone he identified only as
"Witness D". Pilz said he handed over the
information to Austrian authorit́es for
investigation. Iranian officials immediately
summoned the Austrian ambassador in Iran to explain
the reports that Ahmadinejad was under
investigation, describing them as anti-Iranian
propaganda.
Pilz has described "Witness D" as a former
journalist based in Tehran who later fled to France.
"D" Pilz maintains received information on
Ahmadinejad's alleged role from a member of the
Iranian commando responsible for killing the three
Kurds.
Pilz reacted bitterly to the announcement that no
inquiry has been opened on Ahmadinejad, describing
the justice ministry's statement as "complete
disinformation."
"Apparently [Austrian] justice minister Karin
Miklatusch has become the press spokeswoman of the
Iranian president," Pilz said.
Abdolrahman Ghassemlu, then leader of the Iranian
Kurdish Democratic Party (PDKI) was killed along
with two aides in the outskirts of Vienna in 1989.
Ghassemlu, 58, arrived in Vienna in the summer of
1989 for a secret meeting in a suburban apartment
with two envoys of Iran's then president Ali Akbar
Rafsanjani. The Kurdish delegation was to discuss
with the Tehran envoys the possibility of a
ceasefire in Iranian Kurdistan.
Just a few minutes after the start of the meeting,
at which two members of the Revolutionary Guards
were present, a group of armed men burst into the
room and killed Ghassemlu and his two assistants.
www.adnki.com
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