Posted on 10/14/2007 11:56:11 AM PDT by knighthawk
Berlin, 12 Oct. (IPS) To the dismay and anger of the families of the victims, a German court has decided to free an Iranian charged 11 years ago for the assassination of four Iranians in a Berlin restaurant, including the then General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK), two other members of the same Organisation and an opponent to the Islamic Republic.
The Federal German Prosecutor announced on Wednesday that Mr. Kazem Darabi, the coordinator of the Iranian-Lebanese terror squad that assassinated Mr. Sadeq Sharafkandi, the General Secretary of the DPIK and three others on 17 September 1999 in an Iranian-owned restaurant named Mykonos could be free in December, after having passed 11 years behind the bars.
The decision surprised families of the victims and their lawyers, as Mr. Darabi had been sentenced to life imprisonment. However, according to German laws, a detainee condemned to life imprisonment can be free after serving 15 years in prison.
On that night on 17 September, Mr. Sharfkandi, in Berlin to attend an international conference of socialist parties, had invited several Iranian activists to Mykonos. Seated in a private salon behind the restaurant’s main dining room, he was accompanied by Mr. Fattah Abdoli, the representative of the Party for Europe, Homayoun Ardalan, the representative of DPIK for Germany as well as some guests, including Mr. Nourollah Mohammadpour Dehkordi and Parviz Dastmalchi, both known political activists.
“We were just starting eating and talking. From one corner of my eyes looking at Mr. Sharafkandi, I saw the door open and a man entering, brandishing a machine gun and firing. I just plunged under the table, the sound of the machinegund continuing, corpses were falling, blood covering everywhere”, Mr. Dastmalchi, the only one who survived the massacre and played a key role in the condemnation of the terrorists told Iran Press Service in an interview after the killing.
“The first terrorist was replaced by another one who, to make sure that all of us are dead, shot all the group one by one in the head, except me, because I was under the table and looking as I was dead already”, Mr. Dastmalchi added.
All the members of the killing squad except a few who had escaped Germany had been arrested shortly afterward by the German Police and brought to trial, which lasted five years. They were identified as: Mr. Kazem Darabi, an Iranian, one of the masterminds and coordinator of the assassination team, Abdelrahman Bani Hashemi, alias Sharif, the commander of the team and the one who fired with the machinegun; Abbas Ra’el, alias Ammash a Lebanese member of the Hezbollah, the one who gave the victims the last shot in their head; Mohammad Yusuf Amin, alias Abou Mohammad, Lebanese, also member of Hezbollah; Beheshti, in charge of mounting guard at the door of the restaurant; Fazlollah Heydar, alias Abou Ja’far, the driver, also Lebanese and the liaison officer with the Darabi, sentenced to life imprisonment alongside with Ra’el. The others got lighter sentences and were freed.
The German Justice also delivered international arrest warrants against several high-ranking Iranian officials, including Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian, the then Minister of Intelligence, the president and the Foreign Affairs Minister, respectively Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Akbar Velayati, for having ordered the killigs. However, charges against Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mr. Velayati were dropped.
“We were hearing some news about Darabi going to be freed and I talked to our lawyer. We are going to lodge a formal protest, but we are told that everything is legal, and apologized to me and my daughter”, Mrs. Shohreh Badi’i, the widow of Mr. Dehkordi, -- who, contrary to his name, was not a Kurd --, told IPS in Berlin.
Some Jewish organizations and the family of Ron Arad, an Israeli co-pilot who’s plane was shot over Lebanon years ago and captured by the Hezbollah also protested, for, according to Israeli newspapers, some German intermediaries had passed a deal with the Lebanese Hezbollah for an exchange of hundreds of Lebanese prisoners, many of the members of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shi’a Organisation against the body of Arad, whom, Israel and his family insists, had been transferred to Tehran. Allegation that Iran has always denied.
“We are going to make our voice heard on the internet. We are calling for signatories to a petition protesting this injustice, for, we have no doubt, Darabi had been changed in a political deal between the Islamic Republic and Germany”, Mrs. Dehkordi stressed.
Ping
Two words for the good people of Germany: DEATH PENALTY
There is no justice, except vigilante justice.
g’night everyone.
Russia’s Putin hunts diplomatic solution in Iran
Reuters & Yahoo News | 10/14/07 | By Oleg Shchedrov
Posted on 10/14/2007 9:31:08 AM EDT by Flavius
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1911045/posts
BLITZ ON IRAN ROW FOR PM
Sunday Mirror
Posted on 10/14/2007 8:59:38 AM EDT by UKrepublican
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1911032/posts
Iran supports Bosnia EU bid
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=26747§ionid=351020101
Posted on 10/14/2007 5:04:51 AM EDT by kronos77
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1911001/posts
Report: Israeli captives transferred to Iran
Ynetnews | October 14, 2007 | Roee Nahmias
Posted on 10/14/2007 3:39:39 AM EDT by West Coast Conservative
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910989/posts
“According to the report, the captives were transferred to Iran shortly after the kidnapping in a special operation overseen by a senior Revolutionary Guard commander.”
Capital punishment is strictly forbidden by the Grundgesetz, the German constitution.
Except of Poland and Belarus no European nation is seriously (and the Poles are also not really serious) thinking about that. Since practically all nations (except of Belarus - for understandable reasons) are members of the European council (Poland since 1991 - to my limited knowlege) they had to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR rules out capital punishment since 1983 (even under martial law it is strictly forbidden since 2002).
If any European country should reintroduce the death penalty and start to execute criminals, it would indeed loose practically its membership in the council of Europe and in this coherence the membership in the EU. This nation would be isolated and treated as “the” pariah. Western Europe has completely different ethics and values than i.e. the US concerning such matters in the meantime. Capital punishment is therefore among the absolute nonos. Even among the most conservative politicians in western Europe nobody would even start to discuss this anymore.
Different countries different attitudes. Nevertheless it is indeed disgusting that such a as*hole walks free after 11 years or so. Personally I would have taken him into a quarry for the rest of his live and only would given him his ration of soup if he would have smashed 1/2 ton of stones with a usual 5-kilo hammer.
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