Assassins of Iranian dissidents to be Freed By Germany
Ap - World News
Oct 16, 2007

BERLIN -- Germany's chief federal prosecutor said two men convicted in the 1992 assassination of four Iranian opposition figures would be released early, despite a plea Tuesday by the family of missing Israeli air force navigator Ron Arad.

Arad's family asked that Prosecutor Monika Harms make the early release of Kazem Darabi, an Iranian, and Abbas Rhayel, a Lebanese, contingent upon Tehran letting them know what happened to Arad, who they believe is still alive in Iran.

Harms met in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe with family members of Arad, who disappeared after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

The two prisoners, convicted of the Sept. 17, 1992 killing of Iranian Kurdish dissident leader Sadiq Sarafkindi and three of his associates in Berlin, were sentenced to life in prison in 1997.

Harms' office said on Thursday the two would be released and deported in December, citing a law that allows early release for foreigners who have served at least 15 years of their sentence. The pair had been held in pretrial custody for roughly five years, which counts toward their overall time served.
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Following the announcement, the German Foreign Ministry denied speculation the release was linked to any deals with Iran. Harms also insisted the early release was in keeping with German law and unrelated to any outside agreements.

The so-called Mykonos trial — named for the Berlin restaurant where the killings took place — raised an uproar when a German court ruled that Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and then-President Hashemi Rafsanjani had ordered the murders.

Both countries withdrew their ambassadors at the time.

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