BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 327
Friday, January 12, 1996

Representative Office of
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
3421 M Street NW #1032
Washington, DC 20007


Iranian Agents Shot Kurd Politicians-German Lawyer, Reuters, January
12

        BERLIN - The Iranian secret service was directly involved in the
murder of Kurdish opposition politicians from Iran and not contract
killers, a German lawyer told a Berlin court on Thursday.
        A lawyer for the victims' families Hans-Joachim Ehrig said that,
according to documents from the Federal Office for Protection of the
Constitution (BfV), agents had been ordered by Tehran to carry out the
gangland-style killings.
        Three leaders of the Iranian Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK-
I) and their translator were shot dead in a hail of gunfire in a Berlin
restaurant in September 1992. An Iranian and four Lebanese are
accused of carrying out the attack.
        The killing had been "carried out directly by agents of the
Iranian secret service, we are therefore dealing with an act of state
terrorism," Ehrig said.
        In the trial the four accused have admitted in part to charges
they were working for Iranian intelligence and that they were
involved in the shooting.
        Ehrig said that the German BfV counter-espionage agency's
documents show that a team from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry
had been visiting Berlin at the time of the crime and were liaison with
Berlin-based Iranian agents.
        One member of the hit-squad was in contact with the Kurdish
politicians. "The traitor was actually sitting with them at the table,"
said Ehrig, adding that after the killing the assassins were spirited
back to Iran....


Japan Delays Iran's Loans, BBC Radio, Farsi Program, January 10

        According to Meed, a London financial magazine, Japanese
government has announced that in order to avoid displeasing the U.S.
government, it will not pay the loans it has granted Iran till March
1997.
        According to a Japanese newspaper, an official of Japan's foreign
ministry announced the news.  The aforementioned loan, that amounts
to $475 million is the second payment from a series of loans that are
supposed to be paid for constructing a dam in Iran...


Iran Paper Blasts Mitterrand as "Enemy of Moslems," Reuters, January
11

        TEHRAN - A hardline Iranian newspaper on Thursday denounced
Francois Mitterrand as an arch-enemy of Moslems and criticised
sending Iran's foreign minister to a memorial service for the former
French president....
        "It is not justifiable to send our country's foreign minister to
ceremonies honouring someone who has done everything in enmity
with our nation and other Moslems around the world," the newspaper
said....