LEADER OPENLY DISOBEYED, REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS LIKELY TO BE PURGED
By Safa Haeri, IPS Editor
LONDON 23RD March (IPS) In an act of open act of disobedience to the leader, some units of the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards) refused to hand over to the Government the suspects involved in the assassination attempt of Mr. Sa'id Hajjarian, the Publisher of the reformist daily "Sobhe Emrouz" and a close friend and adviser to President Mohammad Khatami.
But as the authorities refused to shed more light, highly informed sources had assured Iran Press Service that the suspects belonged to the Intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards stationed in Shahre Rey, near Tehran.
This was confirmed indirectly by newspapers reports Thursday that Mr. Sa'id Asgar, the main alleged suspect in the assassination attempt of Mr. Hajjarian was such a "violent religious extremist that he had been expelled from Shahr Rey mosque".
Analysts interpreted the unprecedented decision as a direct challenge to the authority of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i and further sign of his weakness, as he is also the Supreme Commander of all Iranian Armed Forces, an act that could lead to a massive purge inside both the Revolutionary Guards and among radical ayatollahs the public believe issues the fatwas for the physical elimination of the political and intellectual dissidents they rule as apostates.
Observers said the fact that those who held the suspects in their custody not only refuse to obey the government, but also the leader and the Judiciary, shows that they must be linked to very powerful organs outside the control of Mr. Khameneh'i, forces so powerful that even the authorities are afraid to identify them.
"This is becoming very serious for the system as a whole and far more devastating for the credibility of the regime than the shooting on Mr. Hajjarian, one analyst noted.
"Mosharekat", the official organ of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) observed Thursday that "despite orders from the leader, the unit that keeps the suspects refuses to transfer them to the Information (Intelligence) Ministry.
The authorities reported Wednesday the arrest of Mr. Sa'id Asgar, a Chemistry student in the Islamic Azaad (Open) University of Tehran and five other persons in connection with the attempt, without providing more details.
The news of the arrest of Mr. Asgar came less than 24 hours after Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the embattled leader of the Islamic Republic had called on the President to "speed up" the arrest of Mr. Hajjarian's suspected killers.
Tehran Radio named Thursday the other alleged suspects as Mohammad Ali Moqaddami, Hossein Moqaddami, Mohsen Majidi and Mehdi Royati, but remained silent concerning the driver of the motorcycle that helped Mr. Asgar to escape after shooting Mr. Hajjarian.
However, IPS sources disclosed that he is a Revolutionary Guard colonel whom, contrary to the authorities claims, has the authorisation to drive this special type of powerful engines.
The Radio did not explained why they had not been named at the same time as Mr. Asgar and why the authorities in charge had to wait another 24 hours before identifying them.
Tehran Province Prosecutor had said that the motorcycle belonged to a private person who uses the engine without authorisation, quoting "confessions" from Mr. Asgar, the principal suspect.
Number 2 man at the Tehran City Council and the "architect" behind reformists landslide victory in the last Majles (parliament) elections, Mr. Hajjarian was shot in the face on 12th March in front of the CTT by a young terrorist who fled with a waiting by powerful motorcycle of the type that is only used by security and Law Enforcement Forces and Revolutionary Guards patrols.
Transported immediately to hospital, his situation was reported Thursday as both "satisfactory and improving", though it would take at least six months before they could say if he can recover fully.
In a communication with the President, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i had urged him to "speed up" efforts at having the case of Mr. Hajjarian solved as quickly as possible.
At the same, and in order to protect the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (voluntary forces) he termed as "the most trusted forces of the revolution", Mr. Khameneh'i had ordered a black out on publishing information on the issue that do not come from official sources.
Hence, the stern warning by to the press by the Supreme Council on National against publishing any "unfounded, slanderous, insidious information accusing wrongly persons and institutions not mentioned by the official, even information that appears in foreign press on the issue.
This shows clearly that Ayatollah Khameneh'i knew about the involvement of the Guards in the project of having Mr. Hajjarian killed and wanted to protect the forces considered as the Praetorian Guard of the "Mollahrchy" from the same humiliation suffered by the Intelligence Ministry following the chain murder of political and intellectual dissidents in November 1998.
Under pressure from the public and thank to investigations carried by the independent press, it was officially established early January 1999 that high ranking officials at the Intelligence Ministry committed the assassinations.
IIPF, the grouping led by Dr Mohammad Reza Khatami, the President's younger brother and of which Mr. Hajjarian is an influential member that scored a landslide victory in the recent elections said the suspects were in the custody of a military institution that refused to hand them over to the Intelligence Ministry.
"It seems the above-mentioned institution has intervened because some of those arrested have ties there," IIPF said, pointing out that the suspects also have links with certain personalities who advocate violence against reformers", an indirect but clear reference to Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi who reached fame after he ruled that faithful Muslims are allowed to kill anyone who questions basic Islamic laws without authorisation from the government.
"Some people try to give a wrong address and withhold information on the identity of the suspects and their ties. They seek to muddy the atmosphere and stop the shedding of light on the truth", the Front pointed out.
Quoting an unidentified "informed source", Tehran Radio monitored in London by IPS said the gang it described as a "terrorist group" was involved in the assassination of a certain Mr. Qasem Shafi'i of the Imam Khomeini Salvation Committee.
But it did not said who was this Mr. Shafi'i and why he should have been murdered by religious extremists.
"Sobhe Emrouz", a reformist newspaper run by Hajjarian, said on Thursday that the main suspect, whom it said was 20 years old, had extremist right-wing views and had participated in previous vigilante assaults on pro-reform rallies.
It alleged he had also taken an active part in a violent raid by hard liners on a student hostel in Tehran last July, which provoked a wave of student unrest and street riots.
The daily "Mosharekat", the official organ of the IIPF confirmed, accusing Mr. Asgar of the murder of a young female student during the six days uprising.
Days after the failed assassination attempt, authorities had revealed that they had identified the suspect by comparing his robot portrait with pictures taken during the last July students anti-regime demonstration, a protest that ended violently after the Basij, the Pasdaran and the Ansar Hezbollah gangs, instructed by Mr. Khameneh'i, entered action against the students.
This revelation itself points to the impartiality of the Iranian Islam-based justice as while hundreds of students have been arrested, none of the persons who directed the Law Enforcement Forces and the Ansar Hezbollah thugs to attack the students were detained, except some lower ranking officers the public consider as "scapegoats'. ENDS HAJJARIAN ARREST 23300