"Though Mr. Fallahian would issue personally some assassinations orders, but concerning important persons, he get the authorisations from Ayatollah (Mohammad Taqi) Mesbah-Yazdi, Ayatollah (Mohammad) Khaz’ali or Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and given to us", according to "confessions" attributed to Mr. Sa’id Emami, the man the regime says was the mastermind behind the assassination of Iranian dissidents.

All the three above-named clerics are closely allied to ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the fundamentalist leader of the Islamic Republic.

Parts of the highly controversial and explosive confessions are published by Mr.Ali Keshtgar, the Editor of the Paris-based "Mihan" monthly on an internet site at www.iran-emrooz.de.

According to the authorities, Mr. Emami, a US-educated technician turned Islamic regime’s Dr Mengle and master moralising committed suicide in prison by absorbing a depilatory product, but his friends and close colleagues say he had been killed in order to prevent him divulging the name of the high-ranking religious official who issued the orders for the assassinations.

Mr. Keshtgar says he obtained fragments of Mr. Emami’s confessions from Tehran.

After confirming that he would consider all those murdered were "apostate", "mohareb" (fighting God) or "atheists" Mr. Emami says Mr. Fallahian issued orders for their elimination to him and other officials at the ministry in charge of "purifying" Iran from corrupt elements.

Started behind closed doors two weeks ago, the trial of those accused of the murder of Mr. Dariush Foruhar, the leader of the secularist Iranian People’s Party and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari, writer Mohammad Mokhtari and human rights activist and poet Mohammad Ja’far Puyandeh in the last days of November 1998 ended last week, without the presence of the families of the victims nor their lawyers, protesting the shortcomings of the trial.

At first, ayatollah Mr. Khameneh'i, whom many believe has personally "blessed" the killings blamed the murders on "foreign agents", but an independent committee created by the president was quick to find out that the assassinations were the work of the Information (Intelligence) Ministry’s most senior officials under the control of Mr. Sa’id Emami.

While none of the men have charged, the two journalists are in prison on charges of harming Iran's national security.

The families of the victims have been boycotting the hearings, which they say are designed to conceal the fact that the real responsibility goes far higher than those on trial.

Relatives of the dead want full disclosure of all the ramifications of the case, as they, like the great majority of the Iranians, are convinced that the real responsibility goes higher than those appearing in the dock.

Mr. Naser Zarafshan, a lawyer for the Puyandeh and Mokhtari families and Ms. Parastou Foruhar, the elder daughter of the slain couple have revealed that all documents concerning Mr. Eslami, including his interrogations, are missing from the files.

He was sent to jail before the start of the trial for having talked publicly about the case, known as "serial murders".

Another lawyer, Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, who was acting on behalf of the Foruhar family, was barred from activity for five years.

Mr. Eslami also confirms that several prominent politicians, namely Dr. Qasem Sharafkandi, the Secretary General for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and his predecessor Dr. Abdolrahman Qasemlou, Dr. Shahpur Bakhtiar, the Shah’s last Prime minister "as well as other apostates" had all been assassinated by the Intelligence Ministry.

"What’s more important, the elimination of some atheists or the safety of the nation of Islam. Is the killing of some apostates more important than that of Ahmad (the son of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) after it became clear that he is getting close to enemies of the regime?", Mr. Emami is quoted, confirming the assassination of Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khomeini.