MYSTERY SHROUDS KILLING OF OFFICER BY SON OF FORMER INTELLIGENCE CHIEF
TEHRAN 27 Apr. (IPS) Five days after a young officer of the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) was killed by the son of Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian, the former Intelligence Minister, controversy and contradictory communiqués and information over the incident continue to come in.
According to several dailies representing both feuding factions of the Iranian leadership, Mr. Mohsen Fallahian, 24, was arrested Tuesday for shooting to death a security police force named Khosro Mirbeigi.
"Abrar",a conservatives-controlled paper and "Aftab Yazd", that support the reformists, both said Mohsen Fallahian, 24, shot and injured one of the two plainclothes security forces who accosted him on a Tehran street at 01:30 local time Sunday.
"A scuffle ensued and Mohsen shot and injured lieutenant Khosrow Mirbeigi, 22", Abrar wrote, adding that the injured police agent succumbed to his injuries after he was transferred to a Tehran hospital.
According to the paper, Fallahian fled the scene of the murder but later was arrested by the police.
During police questioning, the young Fallahian claimed he opened fire in self-defense, thinking the two men were intending to assassinate him, the paper said.
Other newspapers carried contradictory stories on the incident.
Aftab Yazd (Sun of Yazd) said that Ali Fallahian's office, in a faxed statement, had said that the shooting occurred after five people attacked Mohsen who was checking the neighboring streets ahead of his father leaving his office.
"Tose'e" (Development), the latest pro-reform daily hitting just few days ago the news stands said that Fallahian's office had denied any death or injuries resulting from the incident, saying the scuffle involved his son and "a group of rascals" at 23.30 local time.
"Mohsen alone met the five attackers and in the scuffle, one of the rascals was injured and another arrested, the three others fled", the communiqué from Mr. Fallahian’s office said.
But was surprised observers was the communiqué from the LEF taking side for Mr. Falahian by presenting the young officer as a "rogue element" in the force and saying it was done in self-defence.
Confirming the shooting, the statement said Sergeant Khosro Mirbeik, along with several other friends, all recidivists, had accosted Mohsen, 24, for "extortion purposes".
"Khosro Mirbeik had a past of extortions and violent behaviour and was referred to special department for re-examination of his case", the LEF statement added, without mentioning whether Mr. Mohsen Fallahian was in custody.
Notwithstanding the contradictions between the communiqué from Mr. Ali Fallahian’s office, putting the time of the incident at 23.30, the place near his office and the number of attackers at five, declarations by his son, saying he had been accosted by two armed men in Tajrish, in the posh north Tehran, at 01.30, observers wanted to know why the young man was armed, why it took the press three days and the LEF four days before reacting?
More surprising was the attitude of the LEF, a force known for its adamant refusal of admitting the presence of "rogue", "corrupt" and "undisciplined" elements among its personnel and this despite many cases of bribery and corruption reported by the press by LEF agents and officers.
To some observers, the LEF must have been ordered by Ayatollah Ali Khamenehe'i to keep low profile, as Mr. Ali Fallahian is the leader’s special adviser on security and intelligence affairs.
Though being under an international warrant issue by German authorities, yet Mr. Hojjatoleslam Falahian has announced his intention to participate in the June 8 presidential elections.
Many Iranians also accuse the older Fallahian as the man who masterminded the assassination of some hundred Iranian political and intellectual dissidents during the eight years he served as Intelligence minister under the president of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. ENDS FALLAHIAN SHOOTING 27401