Rite Grießhaber, Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee
Dr. Helmut Lippet, Member of the German Bundestag,Foreign policy spokesman
Alliance 90/The Greens
To the President of the highest judicial authority, Ayatollah Shahroudi
5th December 2000, Berlin
Dear President,
We are writing to you in the name of the Alliance 90/Green Party parliamentary group to mark the imminent commencement of the court proceedings concerning the murder case of Mr. and Mrs. Forouhar.
The events of November and December 1998 have attained notoriety in the western public sphere as the “intellectual assassinations”. With this letter we would like to indicate the children’s right to a full investigation into the circumstances and background of the murders of their parents, Dariush and Parwaneh Forouhar.
We ask you as President of the Iranian Judiciary to do everything that you can to successfully investigate these murders using all of the available documentation associated with the case, as the deceased were people who stood for democracy and justice.
Mrs. Parastou Forouhar, the daughter of the murdered couple, has already contacted you personally regarding this matter. She has also asked us for our support. We find starting the trial on the 23rd December 2000 as announced problematic, considering the apparent incomplete nature of the files. We would like to propose commencing the proceedings once it can be guaranteed that complete files will form the basis of the trial instead.
This is the only way that a fair and truthful trial can be held, something which surely is in all of our interests. Claiming to find out the truth in the sense of carrying out a fair and full investigation into the brutal murders is a difficult task. Only by completing this task however can it be guaranteed that the upcoming trial will not descend into farce.
Rita Grießhaber – Member of the German Bundestag
Dr. Helmut Lippet – Member of the German Bundestag
The Islamic Republic of Iran, The Judiciary Power
– Translation –
Mrs Rita Griesshaber
Dr. Helmut Lippet
Dear Honourable Members of the German Bundestag,
Your letter from the 5th of December 2000 was passed on to the Head of the Judiciary. Although Your Excellences are members of the German parliament and are not affiliates of the Judiciary, and although the case of the so-called “chain of murders” is an internal matter concerning our country and the Judiciary Power of the Islamic Republic of Iran is obliged under the constitution to prevent crimes and to penalise criminals, orders have been given to call your attention to the fact that the case investigation and procedures taken against the crimes addressed by the indictment have been satisfactorily carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Judiciary Power. As you may have heard, the judge in charge of this case delivered his verdict in complete independence, having taken all available materials and formal regulations into account. The sentences will be carried out following the end of the legal procedures and the delivery of the verdict.
Mahmud Schiraj
Head of the Judiciary Cabinet
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