Dokument #1176399
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The following information was provided to
the Research Directorate in a 27 February 1998 telephone interview
with a professor in the Department of Political Science at
Springfield College in Mobile, Alabama, who specializes in Iranian
studies. There was an organization called "Rahe Iran" which was
mentioned in the Iranian expatriate media during the 1980s. It was
most likely a very small opposition organization, which would have
been unable to organize people in the Iranian armed forces.
Information on the arrest and/or execution
of high-ranking Iranian naval officers in 1988 could not be found
among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However,
in April 1989 Keesing's Record of World Events reported
that a number of people had been arrested in Iran in connection
with an alleged US spy ring (36601). Among those arrested were
naval officers who reportedly confessed that they had betrayed the
position of the Iranian naval vessel the Iran Ajr, which
was attacked and damaged by US forces in the Persian Gulf in
September 1987 (ibid.). One of those arrested was Bahman Aqa'i,
"the deputy director of the Foreign Ministry's bureau of strategic
studies and research, who was alleged to have worked actively for
the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 1982" (ibid.).
Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
reported that the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Akbar
Hashemi-Rafsanjani, announced on 21 April 1989 that an unspecified
number of people had been arrested in Iran for spying for the US,
among whom were naval personnel who confessed that they had
betrayed the position of the Iran Ajr to US forces in the
Persian Gulf. Hashemi-Rafsanjani stated that those naval officers
had not been executed (ibid.).
On 26 April 1989 IRNA reported that on that
day Iran's Information Minister, Hojjat ol-Eslam Mohammad
Mohammadi-Reyshahri had revealed that the Iranian authorities had
broken up a "CIA network" and "two other espionage networks" in
Iran, which were composed of "monafeqin (hypocrites) and
monarchists." The minister stated that one of the networks was
headed by Mas(ud Dalvand, and named seven military officers who had
been arrested as spies. They were: Colonel Bahram Ikani, Brigadier
Ardeshir Ashraf, Colonel (Ali Gilani, Colonel Mas(ud Baba(i,
Captain Turaj Riyahi, Captain Qahreman Malekzadeh, and Commodore
Kiyanush Hakimi.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
[Tehran, in English]. 21 April 1989. "Majlis Speaker Says U.S. Spy
Networks Uncovered." (FBIS-NES-89-076 21 Apr. 1989, pp. 44-45)
_____. 26 April 1989. "Information
Minister Names CIA 'Spies.'" (FBIS-NES-89-080 27 Apr. 1989, pp.
43-44)
Keesing's Record of World
Events [Cambridge]. April 1989. Vol. 35, No. 4.