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Indicting Rafsanjani

TIME: At 5 p.m. on May 27, 1996, Jayhooni and another Iranian knocked on Mazlouman's door in the Paris suburb of Créteil. Mazlouman was having tea with a French woman, so the two men said they would return in a couple of hours. The next morning, Mazlouman was found dead with two bullets in his chest and a shattering coup de grace under one eye. Jayhooni, a video-shop owner described by investigators as "closely linked" to the Iranian Embassy in Bonn, was arrested in Germany and extradited to France on Oct. 24. On 22 June, 2001, Ahmad Jayhouni was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Reza Mazlouman, former deputy minister of education during the Shah's era. His execution appeared to be linked to his journalism activities, which were considered highly anti-establishment by the Iranian authorities at the time.

Reporters Sans Frontières (Paris-France)

June 18 2001
RSF attempts to bring forward an independent action for damages in trial of Ahmad Jayhooni

Reporters sans frontières has asked to bring forward an independent action for damages in the trial of Iranian Ahmad Jayhooni, which opened on 18 June before Paris's Special Court [cour d'assises spéciale]. "An Iranian journalist was killed in a cowardly way five years ago. It is natural that our organisation should seek to bring forward an independent action for damages in the trial of the assassin's presumed accomplice. Our goal is that those who ordered this assassination be identified and punished. In the past, the French judiciary has not been sheltered from diplomatic pressure in cases of terrorism linked to Iran," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The Court decided to reserve its decision on the admissibility of RSF's request until the end of the proceedings.

On 27 May 1996, Reza Mazlouman, former deputy minister of education during the Shah's era and editor of the publication Payam-e ma Azadegan from 1982 to 1996, was assassinated at his home in Créteil. Reza Mazlouman's execution appeared to be linked to his journalism activities, which were considered highly anti-establishment by the Iranian authorities at the time.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there have been over 150 assassination attempts in over 21 countries against Iranian dissidents living abroad. Reza Mazlouman, who wrote under the pen name Kourosh Aryamanesh, is one of the 350 Iranian opposition figures (of all political currents) who were executed between 1980 and 1996. On 10 April 1997, a historic verdict was delivered by a Berlin tribunal, which for the first time found the Iranian state guilty in the murder of four Iranian Kurdish opposition figures. At the time, the German judiciary issued a warrant for the arrest of Minister of Information Ali Fallahian for the 1992 murders of these four opposition figures. It is clear that the authorities, and particularly the Ministry of Information, are directly implicated in the other executions. The famous investigative journalist Akbar Ganji is imprisoned today, notably for having denounced the ministry's involvement in the assassination of Iranian opposition figures, both within Iran and abroad.

Freedom of expression has been the object of the Iranian regime's steady contempt since the 1980s. Beyond the numerous arrests of media professionals (over 100 between 1991 and 2001), five journalists were assassinated in Iran between 1997 and 1998. In 1996, the year of Reza Mazlouman's execution, twenty-one intellectuals escaped an assassination attempt in a staged bus accident. Several of these intellectuals were signatories of the "manifesto of the 134". This text, published in October 1994 by 134 writers, denounced the systematic censorship enforced against them by the Iranian regime. In the document, the signatories announced the creation of a "professional organisation of Iranian writers who would guarantee their individual independence."

Among its stated objectives, RSF's statutes specify that the organisation aims to "defend journalists who are persecuted because of their professional activities or on the basis of their nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, philosophy or political viewpoints and, if necessary, will launch legal proceedings against the authors of the persecution or seek to have them prosecuted." Moreover, in March 2001, the organisation launched a network named "Damocles", whose aim, among others, is to investigate the crimes committed against journalists. In the last 15 years, over 750 journalists were killed in the context of their professional activities. The vast majority of these crimes have remained unpunished. More often than not, no serious investigation was launched. In certain cases, when international law will allow intervention, the Damocles network will seek in court to have these criminals arrested and tried.

update: June 25 2001
Ahmad Jayhouni sentenced to 17 years in prison.
On 22 June, 2001, Ahmad Jayhouni was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The special court ruled that he had participated in the murder of Reza Mazlouman under orders from the Iranian secret services. Jayhouni will appeal this ruling. RSF, which had attempted to initiate an independent action for Ahmad Jayhouni, was dismissed. According to law, an association (and its statutes) must exist for at least five years at the time of the event to be able to have recourse to the justice system. RSF, which exists since 1985, modified its statutes only in November, 1991, the initial mandate ("to develop information about the situation of Third World countries afflicted by tragedies") did not include the possibility of taking such action before the courts. With the five-year period not being respected, RSF's demand was judged to be irreceivable by the court.