IRAN REACTS SHARPLY TO BELGIUM OVER RAFSANJANI CASE
PARIS 4TH Mar. (IPS) - Islamic Iran reacted vehemently to a Belgian Judge's decision to order police to investigate allegation of crime against humanity by former Iranian President ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and accused Belgium of "gross interference" in Iranian internal affairs.
Judge Damien Vandermeersch ordered Thursday the Police to investigate allegations of human rights abuses and crime against humanity leveled by an Iranian-born Belgian national against Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The Belgian ambassador to Tehran Mr. Guillaume Metten was summoned Saturday by the Iranian Foreign Ministry and was presented with a "strong protest" against Judge Vandermeersch's decision to investigate the former Iranian president.
The complaint filed 10th February accuses the Chairman of the Expediency Council of being responsible for kidnappings, torture, harassment and psychological violence perpetrated between April 1983 and February 1989 in Tehran and two other Iranian cities.
According to a report by the Persian service of Radio France Internationale, the unidentified female Belgian of Iranian origin was detained in Qezel Hesar and Gohar Dasht prisons between 1983 and 1989 where she was tortured and violently harassed.
Observers pointed out that the related period refers to one during which thousands of Iranian political prisoners were eliminated in Iranian prisons on orders from grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"This is a blatant and intolerable example of interference in the internal affairs of Iran," the Iranian official news agency IRNA quoted Mr. Bahram Qasemi, head of the West European Affairs at the Foreign Ministry as saying.
He described the decision as "completely against legal and international laws" and called on Brussels to state "clearly its position on the matter".
According to some Iranian source, two other Iranians have presented the judge similar charges against Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. RAFSANJANI INVESTIGATIONS 4300