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TIME: "... six conspirators were found guilty in the 1991 assassination of former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar in a Paris suburb. Among them was an Iranian government official convicted in absentia. "The Bakhtiar affair totally implicates Tehran," says a French judicial source familiar with the case." August 1998 ahead of the visit to Iran by French Foreign Minister (Hubert Vedrine), France released Massud Hendi an Iranian who was convicted and jailed for this murder... described it as a "mockery of France's judicial system".

Shapour Bakhtiar - former Prime Minister, leader of the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance - and his secretary Soroush Katibeh stabbed to death in the Paris suburb of Suresnes in August 1991.

UNITED NATIONS Economic and Social Council	Distr. GENERAL E/CN.4/1993/41 28 January 1993 ENGLISH Original: ENGLISH/SPANISH
Section of UN Report regarding the assassination of Dr. Bakhtiar

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Forty-ninth session
Item 12 of the provisional agenda

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL
FREEDOMS IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD, WITH PARTICULAR
REFERENCE TO COLONIAL AND OTHER DEPENDENT
COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES

Final Report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic
of Iran by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human
Rights, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, pursuant to Commission
resolution 1992/67 of 4 March 1992

64. With respect to the assassinations of Mr. Shahpour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister before the Islamic Revolution, and Mr. Katibeh Fallouch, his secretary, it was reported that Mr. Zeyal Sarhadi, an Iranian citizen aged 25, was extradited to France by the Swiss authorities on 26 May 1992. Mr. Sarhadi is accused of participating in the preparation of the crime and of aiding the killers to escape to Switzerland. Other persons charged with complicity in the crime were Mr. Massoud Hendi, former chief of the Iranian Radio and Television in Paris, charged on 21 September 1991; Mrs. Fereshteh Djahanbari, allegedly linked to the Iranian Intelligence Services, charged on 28 September 1991, and Mr. Ali Rad Vakili, imprisoned in France on 27 August 1991. According to French press reports, Mr. Massoud Hendi has implicated the Iranian Interior Ministry in the plot to kill these persons. Mr. Hendi is said to have helped the three alleged assassins by providing two of them with false visas to enter France and false Turkish passports to facilitate their escape.

65. It was further reported that the Investigating Magistrate, Mr. Jean-Louis Bruguière, issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Mohammad Azadi and Mr. Farydoum Boyer-Ahmadi, suspected of direct involvement in the assassinations, and Mr. Hossein Sheikhattar, adviser at the Iranian Ministry of Telecommunications, for complicity in the crime. Another person allegedly involved, Mr. Amirola Teimoori, Iran Air chief of airport security at Orly Airport, was reportedly released from custody on 1 November 1991.

66. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran referred to the Bakhtiar case in its reply of 24 November 1992, as follows:

"In regard to Shapur Bakhtiar's terror, the investigation still continues. The Government of Iran has on several occasions cooperated with French police and judicial authorities. Neither the propounded claims by the French mass media nor the reports circulated by the opposite parties in order to disturb the bilateral relations between France and Iran have been endorsed by the police or judicial authorities".

BBC
Saturday, August 1, 1998 Published at 20:22 GMT 21:22 UK
World: Middle East
France releases Iranian jailed for Bakhtiar murder

Reports from Paris say France has released an Iranian who was jailed forcomplicity in the 1991 assassination of Iran's former Prime Minister, Shahpur Bakhtiar, near Paris.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service