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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran Wants Germany to Swap Assassin for Kidnapped German Tourist |
| 2007-01-15 |
| Iran wants Germany to release a convicted killer in return for a German tourist who was jailed after his boat strayed into Iranian territorial waters by mistake. Iranian officials have responded to German appeals for his release by linking the case to that of Kazem Darabi, who is serving a life sentence in Germany for the 1992 assassination of four Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders in a Berlin restaurant. The court that convicted Darabi in 1997 said the orders for the killings came from the highest state levels in Tehran. The tourist, Donald Klein, 53, from Lambsheim in southwestern Germany, was jailed for 18 months by an Iranian court for illegally crossing a border. The sculptor, a passionate angler, had been on vacation in Dubai in November 2005 and had hired a boat to catch swordfish and parrot fish in the Persian Gulf. His French skipper steered the vessel into the Strait of Ormuz and close to the island of Abu Mussa, a restricted zone. They were arrested, interrogated and sentenced within weeks. Klein's wife Karin has made numerous appeals for clemency to Iranian officials. When his mother died, she sent them a copy of the death certificate, hoping the mullahs would show compassion. There was no response.... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 Lets give the Lady over there a chance! |
| Posted by: SwissTex 2007-01-15 22:28 |
| #2 The German's may just go for it. The 1968ers have no spine. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2007-01-15 22:19 |
| #1 give this asshole a dose of poison and then swap them |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-01-15 21:07 |