Daily slams Iranian opposition leader missing in Turkey
Washington, 16 June (IranVNC)—Iran’s hard-line daily Kayhan newspaper yesterday wrote that an opposition leader who reportedly disappeared in Turkey last year had links with the group accused of causing an explosion in a Shiraz religious center.
By: IranVNC
Published: Tuesday, June 17, 2008
11:23GMT—7:23PM/EST
IRAN - TURKEY - ACTIVISTS
Washington, 16 June (IranVNC)—Iran’s hard-line daily Kayhan newspaper yesterday wrote that an opposition leader who reportedly disappeared in Turkey last year had links with the group accused of causing an explosion in a Shiraz religious center.
“The group that was arrested several weeks ago for the explosion in the hosseynieh [a religious and cultural center] in Shiraz – and who confessed to the crime – were affiliated to Fuladvand’s group,” Kayhan wrote.
Kayhan also wrote that Foroud Fouladvand had “insulted Islam and the sanctity of the prophet of Islam and the imams,” on a London-based satellite television network.
The Kayhan article followed a statement issued by the London-based rights organization Amnesty International on 13 June, expressing concern over the fate of the three men.
The newspaper also linked Fouladvand and the other two men who disappeared with him in Turkey, Alexander Valizadeh and Nazem Schmitt, to the explosion in April at a Shiraz mosque.
In its statement, AI had expressed concern that Fouladvand, Valizadeh and Schmitt, may be detained in Iran, and if so, are “at risk of torture or other ill-treatment, and may even be sentenced to death.”
“Amnesty International has learnt that Foroud Fouladvand may currently be held in Tehran, in a detention center run by the Ministry of Intelligence,” Amnesty said, adding that he is said to be charged with “efsad fi’l-arz” [corruption on earth] and “moharebeh” [waging war against God].
The three men disappeared on 17 January 2007 in Hakkari Province in Turkey, near the border with Iran.
Sources: Kayhan Newspaper, Amnesty International
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)