|
Iranian behind Kurdish murders in Germany
to be freed early
12.10.2007
|
|
|
|
October
12, 2007
KARLSRUHE, Germany, -- An Iranian jailed for
life in Germany for the 1992 murder of four Kurdish
dissidents which a Berlin court said was ordered by
Tehran is to be released early, prosecutors said
Thursday.
Kazem Darabi, who was sentenced in 1997 for the
bloodbath in a restaurant, could be freed as soon as
December, and would then be deported to Iran,
federal prosecutor Frank Wallenta said.
The trial set off a diplomatic crisis between Europe
and Iran when the German judges fingered the Iranian
leadership for the first time as a sponsor of state
terror.
Tehran has tried for years to secure the liberation
of Darabi, whom Berlin branded an Iranian secret
agent. His name figured in several rounds of
negotiations on potential prisoner swaps.
An accomplice, Lebanese national Abbas Rhayel, will
also go free and be deported, Wallenta said. Rhayel
is believed to be a member of the Iranian-backed
Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
"Now that the accused have served more than 15 years
of their sentence, the conditions have been met for
such a decision," the prosecutor's office said in a
statement announcing the men's impending release.
Under German law, life sentences are reviewed after
15 years to decide whether the guilty party can be
released.
The five years Darabi spent in jail before he was
convicted counted toward his sentence.
When the Berlin court found Darabi guilty, it ruled
that because of the severity of the charges against
him, he should be held in prison for more than 15
years.
The federal prosecutors' decision marked a surprise
reversal of that ruling. They had said in 2006 that
they intended to keep Darabi in prison beyond this
December.
Iran had long pressed for Darabi's release and
attempted to link it to a deal on the case of German
holidaymaker Donald Klein, who unwittingly violated
Iranian territorial waters while fishing. Klein was
set free in March.
The case of Darabi was also frequently mentioned in
German-brokered talks over the fate of Israeli air
force navigator Ron Arad, missing since October 1986
when his plane was shot down over southern Lebanon.
Israel had originally demanded information about
Arad from Lebanon as a condition of future prisoner
swaps with Hezbollah, but there have been persistent
rumours that he was handed over to Iran by another
Shiite milita, Amal.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Thursday that
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had called German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in an attempt to convince
Berlin not to release Darabi.
But it said Merkel rebuffed his appeal, telling him
that the authorities would follow the letter of the
law.
Relations between Europe and Iran plunged to
freezing point over the verdict in the killings at
Berlin's Mykonos restaurant, with ambassadors from
both sides recalled for several months.
Those killed in the bloodbath included the head of
the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI),
Sadegh Charafkandi, who was attending a
international meeting of socialists in Berlin.
Two other defendants in the case were convicted in
Germany. Mohamed Atris served the full five and a
half years to which he was sentenced while Yusself
Amin was deported to Lebanon after serving more than
half of an 11-year sentence.
AFP
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Īranź or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatź
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hīzbī Dźmokiratī Kurdistanī Źran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran.
The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PEJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PEJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 