IRAN - Jan. 27 - Case Of Slain Dissident Closed.

Military Court Judge Mohammad Reza Aqiqi (a traditionalist) sentences the 3 secret Information (intelligence) Ministry agents to death for carrying out the 1998 killings of the 4 dissidents - Darioush and Parvaneh Forouhar, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh. Five other defendants, including two former Information Ministry directors Mostafa Kazemi and Mehrdad Alikhani, get life terms for ordering the killings. Seven others get lesser jail terms. Three of the 18 accused, all intelligence operatives, are acquitted. On Jan. 28 the judiciary declared that the military court's decision meant the case was closed. (This came through the traditionalist daily Resalat and brought into sharp focus the clash between religious conservatives and reformers, who have charged that as many as 80 dissidents were slain in the last 10 years on orders from the highest ranks of the government. The warning came after Judge Aqiqi said the killers had a list of 40 more people targeted for assassination, a statement that supports reformers' claims that the killings were part of a broad campaign of terror. Few details surrounding the month-long trial emerged because Judge Aqiqi barred the public and the press from the courtroom, saying that secrecy was necessary to protect national security. The judiciary has vowed to prosecute anyone making "unauthorised revelations" about the case. "The judge's verdict is the last word", Resalat said in an editorial. "Criticism of the judge, his verdict or the judiciary must not take place". The case made public some of the worst misdeeds of the Islamic regime. And it brought to a head the institutional power of the traditionalists in the judiciary and the intelligence service, who are pitted against Pres. Khatami, who ordered that a special commission be established to investigate the killings. The newspaper Doran-e Emrouz, which is allied with the reformers, reported on Jan. 28 that Judge Aqiqi had said Kazemi and Alikhani had prepared a list of up to 40 victims to be targeted for assassination. The reformers have long argued that the four murders were part of a planned drive to stifle dissent and cement the traditionalist establishment's hold on power. Two journalists and a former vice president said responsibility for the murders went much higher, involving senior theologians, state officials and former Pres. Rafsanjani. The allegations have all been denied. Despite these claims, it is unlikely the verdicts will lead to further revelations. In his ruling, Judge Aqiqi noted that he lacked the authority to pursue aspects of the crimes punishable under the Islamic code. Intelligence Ministry officials said the killers were rogue agents who had eliminated enemies of the regime on orders from their immediate superiors, without the knowledge of top officials. When the intelligence service announced in Jan. 1999 that rogue agents were responsible for the killings, the intelligence minister, Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi, was forced to resign in what was widely seen as the first step by Pres. Khatami to gain control over the state security apparatus. But that effort was quickly derailed. The most senior government agent arrested in connection with the killings, identified as Deputy Intelligence Minister Saeed Emami, died in custody after supposedly drinking hair remover. Many observers are sceptical of the official coroner's verdict of suicide).