Iran's Rafsanjani blames Khatami for dissident killings
Laptop Battery Friday, 15th April 2005
Iran Focus
Tehran, Apr. 15 - Iran's former president Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani accused Mohammad Khatami's government of having a hand in the 1998 dissident serial murders.
Speaking to a gathering of students north of Tehran, Rafsanjani said, "A crime occurred for which the present government is responsible. They should have answered for it".
Rafsanjani, who also heads Iran's State Expediency Council, which arbitrates between the watchdog Guardian Council and the Majlis (Parliament), was answering a question about who was responsible for the chain murders.
At least 120 politically-motivated killings were carried out in Iran in the 1990s. Authorities at the time blamed the gruesome murders on "rogue agents" from Iran's notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
The agents who were allegedly involved in the killings were tried behind closed doors, in what was widely seen as a whitewash by the theocratic regime. The main suspect, Saeed Emani, who was the Deputy Intelligence Minister at the time, was reported to have "committed suicide" in prison.
According to the indictment, Jones would steal various IBM and Penguin computer servers from Verisign's warehouse in Virginia and sell them to Johnson. Johnson would then sell the servers to several individuals, who would sometimes place them for sale on eBay. As a result of this scheme, the indictment alleges that Jones and Johnson caused Verisign to lose more than $120, 000 worth of computer equipment. In the indictment, Jones and Johnson are charged in three counts with causing the interstate transportation of stolen property, namely IBM 330 and 335 servers, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
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