Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 6 – Irans clergy-dominated
regime reacted angrily to Austria’s announcement on Tuesday that it was investigating claims that the newly-elected ultraconservative president was involved in the assassination of an Iranian Kurdish dissident. Foreign Ministry officials summoned Austria’s ambassador in Tehran to lodge a strongly-worded protest against the investigation. Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 6 – Irans clergy-dominated regime reacted angrily to Austria’s announcement on Tuesday that it was investigating claims that the newly-elected ultraconservative president was involved in the assassination of an Iranian Kurdish dissident.
Foreign Ministry officials summoned Austria’s ambassador in Tehran to lodge a strongly-worded protest against the investigation.
“One should not allow the good relations between the two countries to be disrupted by allegations provided by Zionist elements, Ebrahim Rahimpour, director-general of the Foreign Ministry for Western Europe, told the Austrian ambassador.
In a sign of the Iranian leaders nervousness over the probe, Iran has been warning Austrian companies that their multi-million dollar contracts would be in jeopardy if Vienna went ahead with the investigation, the state-run website Baztab reported.
Austrian prosecutors on Tuesday said they were investigating new information in the 1989 slaying of Iranian Kurdish politician Abdul-Rahman Ghassemlou brought to their attention by an Austrian lawmaker who claims Iran’s president-elect was linked to the assassination.
Ghassemlou and two colleagues were gunned down July 13, 1989, in Vienna.
A spokesman for the Vienna prosecutor’s office confirmed an investigation was under way as a result of new information provided by Peter Pilz of the opposition Green party concerning the assassination of Ghassemlou.
“We must check the information to see if the information provided by the witnesses is correct,” said the spokesman, Ernst Kloyber.
Prosecutors want to interview several witnesses now believed to be in France, their spokesman said. Pilz said that among them is a former Iranian journalist who interviewed one of the alleged killers.
Pilz said he gave Austrian authorities details of statements made by witnesses with information he suggested only people involved in the case might know.
