The verdict by Judge Aghighi, issued against 18 ‘rogue’ agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence for their involvement in the case of ‘serial political murders’ in Iran has no surprises. The realidentity of the accused remains a ‘state secret’ but if we are to believe the Court, low ranking agents who ‘confessed’ tothese murders, are sentenced to death, while those who‘confess ordering’ the murders are given life sentences!

It is very difficult to take these sentences seriously. For those of us who abhor the death penalty, the sentence against minor operatives of the ministry, in a trial set up to cover up ‘serial political murders in Iran’is appalling. As the real identity of those who were tried is ‘secret’, for all we know , two poor Afghan refugees will be picked up from a prison in Tehran and hanged, while real information about who gave the orders to kill (gave the fatwa against writers and dissidents) remains unknown.The judge, Aghighi admitsthat the two more senior officials facing trial, Kazemi and Alikhani, both blamed the then Minister of Intelligence Dorri Najaf Abadi for giving the order to kill , a comment that contradicts previous ‘confessions’ . The judgequestioned the minister and decided there was no case to answer!!

This attitude sums up the sham trial and the enquiry into ‘serial political murders.’ Contrary to various analyses in the Western media, this latest episode in the case of ‘serial political murders in Iran’ is not a continuation of the squabbles between the two factions of the regime, it reflects an ‘understanding’ between the two factions to draw a line on this issue , by limiting the enquiry to those who allegedly performed these killings, giving complete immunity to those who ordered the murders, for the sake of the survival of the Islamic Republic, an aim supported whole heartedly by all factions of the current regime.

Workers Left Unity- Iran, condemns this sham trial and the sentences handed out against junior ‘rogue’ agents of Iran’s ministry of Intelligence . We are adamant to pursue this case in an independent Judicial Commission ofenquiry, set up by international Human Rights Lawyers and Barristers. Our efforts to set up such a commission has succeeded in Britain and it is supported by the Association in support of the families of the victims of serial political murders in Iran, the Executive Committee of the National union of Journalists in Britain and supported at a recent meting of the Human Rights Committee of the British Bar Association.

Another attenp to cover up who was behind serial political murders in Iran