Mykonos restaurant assassinations

The names of the four victims on a commemorative plaque

In the Mykonos restaurant assassinations (Persian: ترور رستوران میکونوس, also the "Mykonos Incident"), Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany on 17 September 1992. The assassination took place during the KDPI insurgency (1989-1996).

Events

Further information: List of Iranian assassinations

Sharafkandi, Abdoli, Ardalan and Dehkordi were murdered in a mafia style attack at the Mykonos Greek restaurant located on Prager Strasse in Berlin at about 11 pm on 17 September 1992.[1][2] Three victims died instantly, while the fourth one died at a hospital.[2] In the same restaurant a meeting was scheduled of Ingvar Carlsson, a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, and Mona Sahlin, the secretary of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and Pierre Schori, the former Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs.[3] Due to a telephone call to Ingvar Carlsson from Carl Bildt, the then current Prime Minister of Sweden, who urged Carlsson to immediately return to Sweden due to the alleged urgent state of the Swedish economy, all three flew back to Sweden the same day and thus probably escaped being assassinated as well.[3]

Sharafkandi, Abdoli and Ardalan were buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris (France).

Graves of Abdoli, Sharafkandi and Ardalan, in Paris.

Trial

The trial began in October 1993.[1] In the trial the German court found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian who worked as a grocer in Berlin, Abdolraham Banihashemi, an Iranian intelligence officer, and Lebanese Abbas Hossein Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. Ex-President of Iran Abol Hassan Bani Sadr who fled the country in 1981 and hasn't returned since, testified as a witness telling the court that the killings had been personally ordered by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and then president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.[1] There was also a getaway driver named Farajollah Haider (aka Abu Ja'far).

Iranian officials, however, have categorically denied their involvement in the incident. The then Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri dismissed the ruling as being political, untrue and unsubstantiated.

In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian[4] after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of Khamenei and Rafsanjani.[5] This led to a diplomatic crisis between the governments of Iran and several European countries, which lasted until November 1997.[6] Despite international and domestic protests, Darabi and Rhayel were released from prison on 10 December 2007 and deported back to their home countries.[7][8]

Adaptations in Media

The events surrounding the Mykonos restaurant assassinations and subsequent trial were adapted into a non-fiction story by Roya Hakakian in her book Assassins of the Turquoise Palace in 2011.[9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kutschera, Chris (1 April 1997). "A network of terror". The Middle East. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Germany/Iran: Details of the assassination of four Kurdish politicians in 1992 at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin". UNHCR. 16 November 1999. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 Svensson, Niklas (26 May 2010). "Här kunde Sahlin och Carlsson ha mördats". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  4. ↑ Israel fails to prevent Germany freeing Iranian
  5. ↑ Roya Hakakian (4 October 2007). "The End of the Dispensable Iranian". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  6. ↑ "German court implicates Iran leaders in '92 killings". CNN. 10 April 1997. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  7. ↑ Germany Deports Iranian jailed for 1992 murders
  8. ↑ "Iran: Terrorist Freed In Germany Is Welcomed By Tehran". Eurasia Net. 14 December 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  9. ↑ Wilford, Marcus (November–December 2011). "The Assassins' Trail: Unraveling the Mykonos Killings". World Affairs. Retrieved 21 June 2013.

External links

Coordinates: 52°29′41″N 13°20′03″E / 52.49472°N 13.33417°E / 52.49472; 13.33417

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