The Foundation for Democracy in Iran has learned from reliable sources in Tehran that another Iranian writer, Ghafar Hosseini, appears to have been murdered by death squads. Mr. Hosseini's body was found at his home in Tehran on Nov. 12.
On Nov. 3, well-known journalist Faraj Sarkouhi disappeared as he was boarding a flight from Tehran to Frankfurt, Germany. Family members believe he was kidnapped and subsequently murdered, and his disappearance was confirmed by the Iranian public media on Nov. 13
FDI sources in Tehran initially reported that a third well-known writer, Reza Barahani, had also recently disappeared from his Tehran home. It now appears, however, that he may have travelled to Sweden. [Mr. Barahani is a member of the International PEN Club, and was instrumental in drafting an open letter to President Hashemi-Rafsanjani in Oct. 1994 calling for greater freedom in Iran, that was signed by 136 Iranian writers and journalists.]
FDI believes the murder of Mr. Hosseini and the disappearance and possible murder of Mr. Sarkouhi confirm a disturbing trend that has emerged in recent months, of intensifying harassment of writers and intellectuals in Iran. This deteriorating climate forced the prominent Islamic scholar Abdolkarim Soroush to leave Iran earlier this year, after his lectures at Tehran University had been forcibly broken up by gangs of club-wielding thugs of the Ansar-e Hezbollah group.
The Ansar-e Hezbollah group has vowed to rid Iran of "liberal" and "anti-Islamic" intellectuals, by force if necessary.
FDI calls on the UNHCR Special Representative for Iran, Prof. Maurice Copithorne, to urgently investigate these cases with the authorities of the Islamic Republic, and to explore the possible revival of semi-official "death squads." If confirmed, these murders would represent a dangerous escalation in the use of organized violence against private citizens in Iran.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director. Tel: (301) 946-2918. Fax: (301) 942-5341. FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org