Iran Protests at Human Rights Violation by Germany

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- A senior Iranian foreign ministry official voiced strong protest against Germany for imprisoning an Iranian national for 15 years.

“The hardships and agonies sustained by Darabi and his family and his handicapped child display a blatant violation of human rights by Germany,” the caretaker of the Iranian foreign ministry’s department for European affairs, Ali Baqeri, said here on Tuesday.

Germany on Monday released an Iranian national who was jailed for life in 1997 for allegedly murdering four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin.

Darabi, 48, was jailed for life for the 1992 murder of four Kurdish dissidents in a Greek restaurant in Berlin called “Mykonos”, but German officials could never prove his complicity in the crime.

“We were following up to Mr. Darabi’s case, but the important point was that Darabi was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment while he was innocent and while he had committed no crime,” Baqeri said.

The official said despite the claims made by the Germans, Darabi’s spouse and his three children had experienced much hardship in Germany, “and because one of his children is handicapped, problems doubled for Darabi’s wife.”