US embassy cable - 05VIENNA2254

UNCLAS VIENNA 002254 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA AND EUR/AGS - VIKMANIS-KELLER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, IR, AU 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN DEMANDS CHARGES AGAINST 
IRANIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT 
 
This cable is Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please handle 
accordingly. 
 
1.  (U) A Greens parliamentarian has asked the Austrian state 
prosecutor's office to open a criminal case against Iranian 
President-elect Mahmoud Ahmedinejad for involvement in the 
1989 murders of three Kurdish leaders in Vienna.  Pilz claims 
to have received information from a person he has identified 
as "Witness D," a former Teheran journalist who had an 
"insider's knowledge" of the planning and outcome of the 
murder plot. 
 
2.  (U) On July 13, 1989, three men were shot and killed: 
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, General Secretary of the Democratic 
Party of Kurdistan/Iran; his deputy, Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar; 
and Fadel Rasoul.  The suspected murderers took refuge in the 
Iranian Embassy in Vienna, and later were able to return to 
Iran in the absence of hard evidence.  "Witness D" claims 
that it was Mahmoud Ahmedinejad who delivered the murder 
weapon from the Iranian Embassy in Vienna to the trigger men. 
 "Witness D" further claims that Ahmedinejad was at the scene 
of the crime, armed with an automatic weapon in order to gun 
down the victims if they tried to escape.  In the event, 
however, he never had to fire his weapon. 
 
3.  (U) "Witness D" is now in France, Pilz says, and does not 
want to leave.  However, he is "at the disposal" of Austrian 
authorities, Pilz says. 
 
4.  (U) Pilz has provided information to the prosecutor in 
his capacity as a private citizen, not in a parliamentary 
capacity.  The prosecutor can choose whether or not to 
proceed with the case.  Pilz has told the press that Austrian 
authorities have opened an investigation, and his office has 
said the same to us privately.  However, neither the Interior 
Ministry, the Justice Ministry nor the Foreign Ministry has 
been able to confirm to us that this is the case. 
 
5.  (U) The Austrian press has reported Ahmedinejad's denial 
of complicity in the 1989 Vienna murders, as well as in the 
1979 Embassy Tehran hostage taking. 
Brown