This brutal assassination carries all the trademarks of a clandestine operation by the Iranian revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence (Iran’s secret service).
Karimian’s GEM satellite TV network beams westernized soap operas and other cultural programs into Iran. This had angered the mullahs to the level that last year he was sentenced in absentia to 6 years in jail by a revolutionary court on charges of « acting against national security » and « propaganda against the state.”
Iran has a long record of killing of hundreds of opponents and foreign nationals in different countries. Some of the top Iranian officials are still wanted: by the Swiss authorities for the slaying of the prominent human rights activist, Dr Kazem Rajavi in Geneva in 1990, by the German judiciary for the murder of Kurdish leaders in Berlin in 1992 and by the Argentinian judiciary for the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
But what is significant in this new terrorist case is the absurd preparations for this murder in advance by Tehran. One example is publishing a fake photograph of Mr Karimian standing (instead of me!) alongside the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi. In fact, the photograph was taken in the Belgian Senate on 27 March 2013, when Mrs Rajavi met with me and other Belgian politicians. Karimian’s face was crudely doctored over my image as can be seen below. That was an attempt to show that the victim was a senior opposition figure which was strongly denied by him at the time.
We call on the European Council and the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini to strongly condemn this terrorist act and the abuse of my photo. I also call on the Turkish government to track down the murderers and bring them to justice.
We urge the EU, US and UN to put the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on their terrorist lists.
Source: / ncr-iran /