Death and life sentences for rogue Iranian agents

The two main accused who had ordered the killings and three other agents received life jail sentences terms. The three who had executed the order were sentenced to death.

Seven agents received jail terms of between two-and-half to ten years and three were acquitted, IRNA quoted a judiciary statement as saying.

It was the first time in Iranian history - both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution - that intelligence service agents had been put on trial.

The verdicts can be appealed. Because of the nature of the crime, appeals against verdicts exceeding ten years imprisonment have to be directly referred to the Supreme Court.

The closed-door trial at a military court had dealt with the 1998 murder of nationalist Dariush Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh, as well as of the writers Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Puyandeh.

All except two of the accused 18 agents on trial had confessed to the killing.

Two of the defendants, Kazemi and Alikhani, who were high-ranking members of the intelligence service, admitted to having ordered the killings which four agents confessed to carrying out in November and December 1998. The remaining 12 accused assisted in the operations.

(dpa)