BRUSSELS - A Belgian judge has ordered police to investigate allegations that former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is guilty of crimes against humanity, officials said Thursday.

Judge Damien Vandermeersch order the probe in response to a complaint filed February 10 by an Iranian-born Belgian national, the Brussels prosecutor's office said.

The complaint accused Rafsanjani of being responsible for kidnappings, torture, harassment and psychological violence perpetrated between April 1983 and February 1989 in Tehran and two other cities.
 

Turkey, Iran in War of Words After Top Official Blasts "Oppressive" Mullahs, Agence France Presse, February 29

ANKARA - Neighboring Turkey and Iran were deep into another angry war of words Tuesday as former Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said Iran's "oppressive" clerical regime was on the verge of collapse.

Rekindling the split between Islamic Iran and overwhelmingly Muslim but officially secular Turkey, Yilmaz, who now heads the Motherland Party in the government coalition, said the mullahs' regime in Tehran "has started to crack and tomorrow it will collapse as well."

"No oppressive regime or dictator has ever managed to survive," he said, comparing the Iranian government to the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy before World War II.
 

Film Festival In France Scrapped Over Threats From Abroad, Reuters, March 1

NICE - A scheduled festival of Iranian films in the French Riviera was called off on Wednesday after anonymous threats were received from abroad, organizers said.

Odile Chapel, director of the Cinematheque of Nice, the main city on the French Riviera, told reporters some of the threats were against her directly. She gave no further details.

"Our role is solely artistic. If programs are used to settle political or religious accounts, then I believe it is better to call the event off rather than risk disturbing public order or leading to acts of violence," she said.
 

Police Chief Killed In Helicopter Crash, Agence France Presse, March 2

TEHRAN - The police chief of the southern Iranian city of Shiraz was killed in a helicopter crash Wednesday, press reports said Thursday.

General Yussef-Reza Abdolfathi was on an anti-bandit mission with other officers when the helicopter came down for unspecified reasons near Shiraz, the reports said.

Two other officers were killed, while the pilot and four more passengers were hurt.

Abdolfathi was posted to Shiraz as a punishment for his brutalities in Tehran in suppressing criminality and political protests.
 

Conservatives Retain Power In Vast Swathes Of Life, Agence France Presse, February 21

TEHRAN - Iran's conservatives still hold on to power in a number of key areas. The conservatives will continue to control the main revolutionary institutions of the regime. The legal system, in all its forms, whose courts last year banned a string of newspapers and jailed their executives, still stands as a bastion.

Ali Khamenei, the spiritual leader, enjoys huge prerogatives under the constitution. According to article 110 of the basic law, he can dismiss the president on a decision of the supreme court or after a censure motion in parliament has two-thirds support.

Although theoretically at the summit of the country's institutions, the legislature is subordinate to the 12-member Council of Guardians, a key constitutional institution currently controlled by conservative clergy.

For the major strategic decisions, such as in defense, the government can only present its views: paragraph one of article 110 accords the supreme leader the right to make war or conclude peace.

Referendums, mobilization of troops and the nomination of military chiefs and the head of the judiciary are among the numerous powers of the supreme leader.

Besides "regular" political institutions, the conservatives control panoply of bodies, which for the last 20 years have had a significant impact on the government's political and economic decision-making.

The regime's propaganda organizations, the leaders of weekly prayers in the large cities like Tehran, as well as the 40,000 mosques in the country, are also controlled by conservatives.

The Guide also appoints the head of the powerful state radio and television, which enjoy a monopoly of broadcasting in Iran.

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