IRANIANS COMMEMORATED THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SERIAL MURDERS
TEHRAN 21 Nov. (IPS) Parastoo Foroohar, the daughter of Dariush and Parvaneh, slain leaders of the Iranian People Party confirmed that the case of the murder of her parents as well as several other intellectuals and human rights activists is still pending, with the authorities no willing to identify the real culprits.
High-ranking agents of the Intelligence Ministry had savagely assassinated the Foroohars at their modest residence in Tehran at the end of November 1998, followed by Mohammad Mokhtari, Mohammad Ja’far Pooyandeh, Majid Sharif and Pirooz Davani.
Though most Iranians are certain that the assassinations, better known as the "serial murders" were instructed by senior clerics, but so far, no one, except two junior employees at the Intelligence Ministry have been identified.
Mr. Sa’id Emami, a deputy Intelligence Minister designated by the authorities as the mastermind of the killings committed suicide in prison, but two of his close associates were freed latter on.
"Despite all out efforts to have the authorities follow the case, but so far, we have received no answer and the Article 90 Committee of the Majles that is following the case has said that it had reached the point that it could go no further", Ms Foroohar told reporters on the eve of the fifth commemoration of the murders.
Sources in Tehran said that despite strong recommendations by the Police to keep the ceremonies very low profile, yet hundreds of Iranians, most of them young ones, turned up at the mosque, chanting nationalist songs and carrying the traditional Iranian flag.
On the orders from the Police, the ceremonies had been differed to the afternoon in order to not coincide with the so-called "international Qods (Jerusalem)" rally, a manifestation the Islamic Republic organises at the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramazan to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people.
In a statement made earlier, Hojjatoleslam Hoseyn Ansari Raad, the Chairman of the Article 90 that deal with legal, judiciary and human rights issues had confirmed that his inquiries concerning the serial murders have reached people "we have no power to deal with them", an indirect but blunt confirmation of the suspicions that the orders for the physical elimination of the dissidents were issued by some high-ranking clerics.
"This is exactly the point we also have reached: a wall it is difficult to cross", the 45 years-old Parastoo said, adding that the questions she and her lawyers have raised with the Judiciary concerning the assassination of her parents have not been heard by the authorities.
"After five years of the files going two and fro between the different justice departments, there is no chance of a satisfactory outcome. Now we are sure that Iranian justice refuses to investigate this case and refuses to punish the murderers and those behind the murder", Ms Foroohar told Radio Farda, the Persian service of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.
Mr. Ansari Raad warned on Thursday that if the thought that led to the serial murders in the one hand and the approach of the officials to the case are not uprooted, then one has unfortunately expect more killings of the same pattern.
"The authorities, instead of identifying and arresting the real culprits have unleashed against the dissidents", the IPP said in a statement issued on the fifth anniversary of the serial murders of journalists and intellectuals, adding that the Party would continue "its quest for justice".
For its part, the Paris-based international press watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) called on the Iranian authorities to break "the impunity enjoyed by murderers and especially those who instigated killings".
"There is never any discussion about who were the masterminds behind the killings", the Reporters Sans Frontieres observed
All the families of victims have complained that the question of who instigated the killings has never been raised. Since November 2002, they have been making complaints to international justice organisations. Reporters Without Borders supports these families and hopes that the international bodies will do everything within their power to see that justice is done. ENDS FOROOHARS COMMEMORATION 211103